Trials
by DtheTrain
Summary: Weiss Schnee is facing her trials to become a Jedi Knight, Ruby Rose and her Sister are following the trail of the group who killed Summer Rose, Blake Belladonna just wants to leave her old life behind. The force works in mysterious ways. Set in the Old Republic/New Sith Wars era.
1. Prologue

_There is no emotion, there is peace._

 _There is no ignorance, there is knowledge._

 _There is no passion, there is serenity._

 _There is no chaos, there is harmony._

 _There is no death, there is the force._

 _-Jedi Code_

* * *

 **Prologue**

* * *

Cannon fire lit up the atmosphere above a terrestrial world, the meager planetary defense weakening with every streak of light. On the surface, the grasslands burned and settlements charred to a crisp. The ruins of an ancient complex started to crumble and burst apart while, in the courtyard, eight young adults screamed around a comlink. The words were muddled – impossible to discern. Soon, the cannons stopped.

Weiss Schnee woke with a start, in one fluid motion her lightsaber flew to her hand, activating in a defensive posture casting a soft blue glow over her chambers. On the other side of the room, Jaune Arc also called his lightsaber to action, clumsily trying to activate the yellow blade before promptly falling out of his bunk to the ground with a girlish yelp. A moment later the door slid open and Bartholomew Oobleck was in the middle of the room.

"I felt something, what's going on?" Oobleck asked as he scanned room for intruders, moving at speeds the two young padawans would have assumed impossible before spending any amount of time with the man. Weiss deactivated her lightsaber and sighed.

"Nothing, sir. I had an extremely… realistic dream." She admitted to the Jedi as he inspected the bulkhead for leaks. "No, not a dream. A vision."

In an instant Oobleck was centimeters from Weiss' face. "A vision? Are you certain?"

"I…I think so. Yes, I'm certain. It was far too detailed and although I hadn't seen half the people before in my life I'm confident I could easily pick them out in a crowd." At this Oobleck was gone. Not simply farther from Weiss' face, but out of the room, no doubt to wake up Weiss' master so she could hear this for herself.

"You really think you had a vision? Was it…you know…good?" Jaune asked as he picked himself up from the floor and called his lightsaber back to his hands from where it'd fallen.  
"Yes I'm sure I did, and no. I don't think it is good at all."

* * *

"Yaaaaaaaaaaaang, please would you stop that?"

"Ugh, fine. You're just no fun anymore, baby sis!" Yang tossed her sister the helmet she'd been holding out of reach before placing her own on her head. The hissing of the armor sealing accompanied the yellow lights that began to activate and sort themselves before her eyes. For a few moments, all Yang could hear was silence before the external microphones booted fully and let the background noise back in. Soon, an icon on her HUD blinked and Yang blinked back, connecting to the secure close range comlink frequency she and her sister had agreed on for tonight.

"One of these times, Yang, I'm going to take my helmet back forcefully," came an annoyed voice through the helmet comlink.  
"Oh, relax, sis! You and I both know it's not in our culture to make empty threats, so why do you always insist upon it? You'll bring all sorts of dishonor to our name, and then what will we do? Dad would skin us!" Yang knew she was pushing it with her teasing, what with Ruby tense about this job to begin with, but old habits tend to die hard, and teasing her sister was the oldest habit Yang had. "Plus, you'd never stand a chance against me!"

"I would too! You're slower than a blasted Hutt with your kit!" Ruby countered.

Yang grinned, and hefted the massive heavy repeater over her shoulder "Hush now, you know Ember doesn't like it when you call her fat!"

Ruby rubbed her forehead with frustration before sighing over the commlink, "Fine, tell her I'm sorry for calling her a useless yellow pile of bantha dung."

"I don't remember you saying that."

"Not out loud."

At that Yang threw her head back in laughter. Soon she was joined by her sister as they began to make their way through grassy fields to their destination – a campfire burning on the horizon.

* * *

Blake Belladonna was not having a good night. First, she runs into a group of Bounty hunters. Then, when she ducked into a cave to hide, a hive of kinrath stung her and forced her out. Now, she was ten feet underground and trapped in ancient ruins. She wasn't sure whose ruins these were, it looked like some sort of school, but she was sure that the laigreks on the other side of the door she had shut behind her would very much like to eat her for dinner. After collapsing against the door, Blake finally let her eyes explore the room she would likely be for a while and let out a gasp as she saw them. Hundreds, maybe thousands of holobooks were scattered all over the place, some of them remaining on the shelves, some of them tossed in piles, and – much to Blake's distaste – some of them snapped in half. Maybe hiding from those beasts wasn't going to be so bad after all.

 **Hey, everyone. Just thought I'd pop up at the end here to mention that in no way to I claim to own any of the characters or particularly trademarked parts of the setting used in this fanfic. All RWBY characters belong to Roosterteeth Productions, all Star Wars stuff is Lucasfilms / Disney and the Mando'a that Yang and Ruby use was pretty much all Karen Traviss. I'm saying this here so I don't have to say it before every chapter, so yeah.**

 **\- DtheTrain**


	2. Chapter One

**Chapter One**

* * *

"You're sure that's everything you saw?" Stern green eyes bored into Weiss as she finished describing her vision to her master.

"Yes, master, that's everything there was."

"Did you recognize any of the people in your vision?"

Weiss gathered her thoughts for a moment before answering, "Yes, I was there. So was Jaune. Other than that, no. There were two people wearing Mandalorian-style armor, one painted red and the other orange and gold. I saw four other humanoids in much less distinct apparel with enough weapons and explosives between them to kill a kyrat dragon."

Glynda Goodwitch pursed her lips in thought before speaking again, "Do you recognize anything that might tell us where this vision of yours is leading you?"

"I…well…there was a lot of grass. And some cliffs…and the planet was blue and brown?" Weiss knew she wasn't being helpful with this, but her master just sighed and sat back into her chair.

"Meditate on this vision, Weiss, have hope that the force will guide you to your destiny. I'll go contact the council and tell them the plans for your trials have changed."

"Capital idea! From my student's role in this vision of yours, it is only natural that he go with you on this journey! I will let him know at once!" Oobleck, who had been trying his hardest to stay still and quiet though Weiss' story disappeared from the room appearing, from the sounds Jaune made a second later, directly above his padawan's bunk.

"Master, wait. What do you mean the plans for my trials have changed? I thought you said I was ready!"

"Calm down, Weiss. I never said you were no longer taking place in the trials, just that the plans have changed." Weiss sprang to her feet, agitation clear in her face.

"That's as useful as ever, master. When will I undergo the trials now, next year?" The room began to drop in temperature as Weiss began to lose her composure.

"Weiss, enough! Sit down you foolish girl and think!"

Weiss took a deep breath and sat down. She took another deep breath and the room began to warm again. A third breath and Weiss realized what her master had meant.

"I'm making my own trials?" She asked, quiet and unsure.

"The Force is shaping our future always. It seems that its will is that your trials are less average and will take place in the place in your vision. We have no choice to trust in it. Now, go and meditate while I have a talk with the Council."

"As you say, master." Weiss rose and bowed to her master before walking out of the room, returning to the proper attitude her master had spent years instilling in the girl. It was a short walk to the quarters she shared with Jaune aboard the _Beacon_ , her master's personal transport, where she entered and sat down in front of her bunk to meditate. She felt a breeze as Oobleck disappeared from the room.

"So, Ice Queen, I guess you and I are heading to wherever your vision pointed, right?" Weiss simply glared at the young padawan sitting across from her, silencing him before he interrupted farther. Soon, she lost herself in meditation, urging the Force to point her in the right direction.

* * *

"Dantooine! It's on Dantooine!" Weiss shouted triumphantly. Once again, Jaune was startled awake and fell from his bunk.

"Dantooine? Why does that sound familiar?" He mumbled, rubbing his head where he bumped it in the fall.

"I think it's the sight of an old Jedi Enclave where the order established an academy."

"Quite right, Weiss!" Oobleck said as he appeared beside Jaune, startling Weiss but if Jaune was caught off guard by his master he didn't show it. "The courtyard you described also matches well with the general orientation and style of the enclave ruins! I'd wager that's exactly where your vision is leading you!"

A few steps echoed down the hall and her own master was standing in the room as well. "If the force wills you to the enclave ruins, so be it. I will inform our pilot." She hardly broke pace as she spun on her heel and walked to the _Beacon's_ cockpit. The ship lurched as it exited hyperspace only to lurch again as its new course was laid in and initiated. The intercom activated and the ship's android spoke: "Salutations! With our current course, we will arrive in orbit above Dantooine in twenty hours!"

* * *

Ruby studied the layout of the camp through the feed from the sights of her sniper rifle.

"There's twenty of them. Four sentries patrolling, one in the tower. Everyone else seems to be asleep."

"Can you tell if they're who we're after?"

"Not from here, there's not any markings on the armor I can make out at this distance. Could be any band of mercs."

"Well, let's get closer!" The excitement in Yang's voice wasn't masked. Ruby heard Ember Celica, Yang's custom heavy repeater, make a distinct click and hum as the safety was disengaged and the antigrav booster was brought online.

"I don't know if we should, I have this feeling that they're not the guys,"

"What makes you say that? Don't tell me my little sister, the feared Reaper from Mandalore is scared of some second rate thugs!"

"I'm not scared!" Ruby snipped, rather loudly at her sister. If not for the soundproof helmet they both wore, Ruby was sure that this conversation would give their position in a heartbeat – not that Yang would mind. She adhered to their father Taiyang's combat philosophy: It's one thing to see a Mandalorian coming and another thing to do something about it. It tended to make recon very difficult for Ruby. "I just have this feeling, ya'know?"

"I can't say I do, sis. But that doesn't change the fact that even if these aren't the specific criminals we're looking for, they're still criminals. The republic will probably pay some form of bounty on at least one of their heads, right?"

"You're just trying to get me to let you shoot them, Yang"

"I'm offended, Ruby!" Yang held her hand to her chest in mock exasperation.

"Yeah, yeah, sure you are. Just hold tight until I figure this out"

Ruby watched as Yang slumped beside her, disengaging the antigrav booster and reengaging the safety while bobbing her head to what Ruby assumed to be music. Turning her attention back to the mercenary camp, Ruby switched the filter from thermographic to ultraviolet so she could make out any small detail that might give away the identity of the group when she finally found something. One of their ships had a name! Along the side of the cargo ship on the outskirts of the camp was painted _Talon_. Ruby sighed while she searched the planetary net for a ship of that name and make, 'some people have no imagination. I mean, seriously! _Talon_! That's the best name you can think up?' A small ping indicated that her search had turned up results and her heart sank when she read them to Yang:

" _Talon_ : an XS Stock freighter manufactured by the CEC. Registered to Perry, a known affiliate of the White Fang. And here I was hoping that we'd actually find our targets."

"Ah, cheer up, Ruby! If that's the White Fang, we can definitely collect some money for taking them down! Let's just take care of this camp, blow up their ship, and send word to the Republic outpost! They'll be here by morning, we'll hand over the entire camp who will no doubt surrender to us, and we'll continue our trip a little wealthier!" Yang's upbeat tone made Ruby think that she was talking about going out with a guy or buying someone a gift instead of killing and intimidating their way into profit, but she could tell that the blonde was going to wear her down eventually, so she gave in.

"Alright, but let's try not to kill them all this time, Yang. They're worth more alive."

* * *

'Ember Celica is excited! Or, at least it would be if it could be,' Yang thought to herself. 'Maybe it's just me.'

"Alright, Rubes, I'm in position."

"Roger, on my mark, Yang" Her sister's voice was always different when they were in combat, so militaristic and formal you wouldn't be able to guess that it belonged to an 18 year old girl. Yang's voice however…

"Yeah, yeah, just hurry up with the sentries or whatever! I'm getting bored!" She grinned under her helmet and hefted her weapon, aiming the sights at the camp.

"Just remember to be a little quiet please."

"No promises, Rubes!" Yang knew the body count would be lower if she just knocked out the commander, but restraint was never a strong suit of hers. Plus Ember Celica was set to stun. They'd be alright. Probably.

Ruby let out a single syllable, "Mark." The sentry in the tower collapsed, and soon, so did the others. Yang started to run at the camp the minute she heard the order. When she was a few meters out, she pulled the trigger of her heavy repeater and poured blaster fire through the central tent around where Ruby said the commander should be. In a split second the camp was awake and a moment later, mercenaries were diving behind cover with hold out blasters, a few rifles, and whatever else was within arm's reach. A few moved to cover the entrance to the command tent and opened fire.

It was too late to stop Yang however. She continued her charge into the command tent as the blaster bolts ricochet off her armor only to find a bowcaster pointed at her face and a grinning human standing behind a very angry wookiee.

Yang activated her external speakers and smiled, "It's surprising to see such reaction time from untrained scum like yourselves!" The wookiee fired a shot point blank at Yang's chest and she simply leaned forward so she would look unfazed as the bolt was deflected by the Mandalorian iron. Before the wookiee could react or fire again, Yang let go of Ember Celica and extended the vibroblade from her right gauntlet. With one motion, the wookiee's trigger arm was separated from the rest of the body and with another, Yang had pushed it back despite being at least a meter shorter. "Come, now, you can't have thought you'd be able to hurt me!" Yang knocked her chest plate with her left hand as the right allowed the blade to retract and pick up her blaster.

The confident smirk disappeared from the White Fang commander's face as he backed up a few steps. Yang walked past the wookiee, still in shock, and grabbed him by the throat. "Order your men to surrender peacefully and this isn't going to hurt. Don't order your men to surrender and this will hurt a lot. Got me?" Yang knew full well how intimidating her presence could be, just the t-slit visor of her helmet strikes fear in most people and now, after shrugging off a blaster bolt like it didn't even hurt (it had, in fact, hurt a lot) and stunning a wookiee, she was surprised that the man hadn't pissed himself.

"Yeah, yeah, I got you, I got you," he rambled as he looked over his shoulders. The grin came back for an instant as Yang's helmet picked up movement behind her. Yang didn't even flinch however, as the grin was short lasted.

"Yang, we're clear, full surrender after the stunt you pulled." Ruby said over comm while walking up behind her. "You ready to call the Republic?"

Yang knocked the commander out and cut off her external speaker, "Yeah, you do that while I torch the ships."


	3. Chapter Two

**Chapter Two**

* * *

"This place used to be a Jedi academy of some sorts," Blake mumbled to the carcasses of the laigreks who had been foolish enough to let their guard down around her. After a day of extermination around the archive she'd set up shop in as well as defining a route away from the hive, Blake was sure that the creatures would get the idea that she wasn't worth the effort. A high pitched screech shattered that train of thought as another scout scuttled out from one of what Blake assumed to be classrooms.

'This one thinks it can sneak up on me just because it's pitch black? Heh. Poor thing. Maybe I'll let it live so it can spread the tale of my victory…' A simple flip placed her directly behind the insectoid and a single fluid motion drew her blade and parted the laigrek's head from its body. 'Eh, it's just a stupid bug.' Blake's eyes scanned the hall for more creatures and her ears focused to detect any additional movement. Confident that she was alone again, she continued back down the path that would take her back to the surface.

'The night here should be dark enough to hide my movement from most of the Sith soldiers they've no doubt sent after me. I've just got to find something to eat, I think I saw some iriaz grazing on my way in. I hope they're still there.'

Blake reached the ruinous staircase after a few minutes of slipping from shadow to shadow and took a deep breath before forcing the door open; Gambol Shroud readied in her right hand. She reached out to the Force with her left and pushed the door open enough for her to slip through a crack. Immediately the stale air she'd gotten used to was replaced by a cool breeze carrying the scent of various grasses and creatures.

For a moment it was too much for Blake to handle as one of her heightened senses was sent into overdrive. Her vision seemed to blur and her hearing dimmed as she got acclimated to her new surroundings. 'I'm such a moron,' she scolded herself mentally as she froze in place, 'You're better than this Belladonna! You knew this would happen without preparing yourself but you stopped thinking and now you might be dead.'

A low growl sent adrenaline through her body and her senses snapped back into perfect clarity as her fear was confirmed. 'You would have smelled that hound if you'd just taken your time, Blake,' she thought as she moved to dive out of the kath hound's lunging bite. A soft ping came from Gambol Shroud's hidden blaster and the beast collapsed behind Blake dead.

Blake had felt the beast's fear as it had attacked. It hadn't really wanted to kill her, the hound had just been surprised. She knew she could have just stepped back into shadows, letting the Force melt her image away from any creature or person that was looking for her, but Blake disliked canines. Blake really disliked Canines.

"Great, now I have to hide you, stupid hound," Blake sighed after checking the area for more threats. As she grabbed the beast's legs to move it somewhere that wouldn't give away the location of her hideout, she heard engines roar over the grasslands.

Blake dove into the shadows and cloaked herself with the Force in time to watch as five figures jumped from ten meters above the ground, two of them with unnatural grace, one tucking into a tight roll as it hit the ground, and two falling into a hero pose with all the grace of a box. Blake stepped farther into the shadows when beams of light appeared in the graceful figures hands in a defensive posture. The Jedi had found her.

* * *

"Salutations, Weiss! I've been informed that your master has temporarily handed operational control to you! I've got an incoming transmission from the local Republic outpost! Shall I patch it through?"

Ten years ago, Weiss would have been surprised at the way P3-N1 spoke to the crew. It was extremely different from the regimented formality the Temple droids used: upbeat and chipper instead of monotone and neutral. Weiss was sure that her master's refusal to allow P3-N1's memory to be wiped had something to do with it.

"Thank you, Penny, I'll be there momentarily."

"Sensational! I will inform the outpost!"

No matter what the cause of P3-N1's quirks, they still managed to crack a rare smile out of Weiss as she straightened her robes and hair, making sure she looked as respectable she was expected to look as the student of master Goodwitch.

The walk to the _Beacon's_ cockpit took her past the commons where master Oobleck was sparring with Jaune. Despite his many failings and general clumsy behavior, Weiss was always impressed by Jaune's complete mastery over his style of lightsaber combat. He had told her once that it centered on Form III's defensive nature. It was a good fit for the young, nonaggressive Jedi, and the fact that it seemed Oobleck was holding back very little with Jaune redirecting every strike did well to show the youth's endurance and tenacity. Brief eye contact and a nod from Jaune was all the greeting she got as she continued walking, leaving the hissing of lightsabers hitting lightsabers behind her.

When she reached the cockpit, P3-N1 bounced on her heels and embraced Weiss.

"It is so good to see you, friend!"

"Penny, we just talked. Not even a moment ago!" Weiss managed to get out with the last of the air in her lungs after P3-NY's bear hug. For a small, feminine droid, P3-N1 had some top of the line servos; that was for sure. Releasing Weiss, P3-N1 took a step back and moving her head in something that looked an awful lot like a person deep in contemplation.

"So we did! Shall I put you through to the outpost?"

"One moment, how do I look? Presentable?" Weiss couldn't shake the same uneasy feeling she got every time she communicated with the full authority of her master.

"Master Goodwitch would describe you as acceptable!" Penny managed to make even the cold, professional words of her master sound cheerful.

"Alright, put me through."

A moment later a man wearing a Republic uniform was flickering in front of her. He gave a sharp salute and spoke in a practiced tone, "Master Jedi, it is a pleasure to talk to you"

"I am Weiss Schnee, I speak to you with the authority of Master Goodwitch." Weiss responded with a bow of her own. "I understand you had something you wished to discuss with me?" If the soldier was surprised by a padawan so calmly speaking to him, he didn't show it.

"Yes, ma'am. Two of the Republic's outside freelancers report the surrender of a White Fang camp to them. They're requesting retrieval and you're the closest Republic ship in the sector."

Weiss hid the surprise on her face. Freelancers got White Fang mercenaries to just…surrender? "Very well, we will collect these prisoners and transport them to the outpost immediately. I'll contact you again when we're prepared to dock."

"Of course, ma'am. I'll forward the freelancer's contact information." Another bow and the hologram was cut off. Weiss relaxed and turned to P3-N1.

"Do you have the frequency to contact these freelancers? I'm eager to talk to such a skilled group."

"Affirmative! Although group is not the word I would use to describe these two!"

"Why do you say... wait, two?"

* * *

A light on the edge of Ruby's vision started to blink. After checking that it was the secure channel she and Yang had used to contact the Republic outpost, she switched frequency and patched her sister in. A voice Ruby could only think to describe as stuck up came over the radio.

"This is the Republic transport _Beacon_ to the freelancers Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao-Long."

"Rose here, I'm surprised that you had a ship so close. I usually have to wait a few hours before anyone contacts us."

"We just entered the system. May I have your coordinates?"

"Roger, _Beacon_ , transmitting now." Ruby motioned to Yang to send the ship their location and got a nod from her sister as she tapped some numbers into her datapad.

"We've got it, ETA is four minutes. _Beacon_ out." The minute Ruby switched back to her regular frequency, she was greeted to Yang's complaints.

"Man, I've heard some real cold people in Republic service, but that was something else? Not even a 'Hey, guys, I heard you took out this super big merc camp! Kandosii!'"

"I don't think they would know what Kandosii means, Yang. Besides, it's not a regular Republic ship."

"What makes you say that?" Yang moved to take off her helmet and sit down on one of the camp's crates. After removing her own helmet, Ruby continued.

"Well, for one, it described itself as a Republic transport. Not a prisoner transport, or a frigate or something, just a transport. How many plain old transports run around with high level Republic transponders?"

"Uhh…" Ruby didn't let Yang get farther before moving to her next point.

"Plus, normally comm officers give a name and rank. She just went straight to business. And she mentioned she just got into the system. I think they're Jedi."

"Jedi? You're just going to guess Jedi? I bet you 50 creds that it's just some di'kut new girl." Ruby met Yang's lilac eyes and held out her hand.

"Make it 100 creds and you're on, sis."

Yang smirked as she shook her sister's hand, then leaned back on her forearms, looking up to the stars. "But you have to admit, we were pretty awesome tonight, right?"

"Sure, Yang. Even if you did ignore everything I always say about being quiet." Ruby smiled at her sister before putting her helmet back on to wait for _Beacon's_ arrival.

* * *

"Jaune, is the cargo bay ready to receive the mercenaries?"

"Yes, master Goodwitch!" Jaune spat out as quickly as he could. It'd been a year since Weiss and Jaune had started working closer together due to their masters being given a long term assignment and it seems Jaune was still extremely intimidated by her master's…strict approach to training.

"Good. Penny, send word to the freelancer that we're preparing to land. Weiss, this is your operation until the end of your trials, so I expect you to go meet the freelancers and organize the transportation."

"Of course master, I will do my best to ensure everything goes smoothly." Weiss looked to her master in time to see a brief trace of a smile before returning to her usual straight face. A lurch let the Jedi know they had landed and Weiss motioned for Jaune to follow her outside, confident that her friend would follow her instructions out of fear of upsetting either of the women aboard the _Beacon._

Walking down the ramp, Weiss was greeted by a gentle breeze of cool air. It was a little chilly outside, but Weiss had never really minded the cold. She preferred it to anything else, actually. She looked over her shoulder to see Jaune pull his robes closer to his body while he followed her over to the two figures waiting for them outside.

When Weiss got a good look at them in the light of _Beacon's_ landing lights, she stopped in her tracks. Standing before her was the red-armored Mandalorian from her vision, lounging next to her a blonde in the gold and orange armor also right out of her dreams. The blonde spoke up first:

"Hey, you the girl we talked to earlier?" When Weiss didn't answer, the blonde cocked her head and continued, "What's wrong? Don't tell me you're scared of us? I mean…I would be scared by me, especially after hearing about our heroic conquest over this mercenary camp, but over the radio you didn't sound so impressed!" Yang smiled as she stood up and patted the massive repeating blaster leaning against her leg.

Weiss finally composed herself enough to speak. "I am Weiss Schnee, apprentice to Jedi Master Glynda Goodwitch." She motioned to Jaune, "This is my friend and partner, Jaune Arc, apprenticed to Master Bartholomew Oobleck. And yes, I am the one who contacted you on the comlink, I apologize for my behavior." Weiss bowed as the red figure stepped forward, her voice coming across as hard and metallic through her helmet's external speakers.

"I am Ruby Rose and this is my sister, Yang Xiao-Long. We're freelancers for the Republic, it's a pleasure to meet you. Haven't run into many Jedi over the years!" Ruby held her hand behind her and her sister palmed a credit chip into it, a defeated look in the blonde's face.

"So you guys got this camp to surrender? Like, the entire camp?" Jaune's voice picked up from behind Weiss.

"Yeah, cool right?" Yang answered, a smile returning to her face as she motioned them to follow her before swinging her repeater to her shoulder and walking through the camp.

"We were looking for a different group, a Sith hunting party that's reportedly looking for some deserter, when we came across this lot."

"But they all surrendered? Like, all of them?" Jaune couldn't hide the surprise out of his voice as they followed Yang and Ruby chuckled through the speakers in her helmet.

"Well, most of them. Five casualties and two injuries, but the majority are alive and chained up. Including their commander."

"That's impressive, you two must be highly skilled. Not only to be hunting Sith, but to force some of the most notorious scum in the galaxy to give up without much of a fight."

"Damn right we are!" Yang called from the front, "You don't hire Mandos for our cooking!"

"I thought the Mandalorians usually worked with the Sith," Jaune mumbled softly to himself in a tone Weiss recognized as the same one he usually reserved for dealing with an overexcited Oobleck.

"Most of them do," Ruby replied to the barely audible comment, "But the Empire managed to piss off my sister and me a few years back, so we started taking jobs for the Republic." She shrugged, "The pay is probably a little worse and we have to be careful not to break too many laws, but it's better than working for those ge'hutuune."

"And here we are! Excited for your trip, guys?" Yang interrupted before either of the Jedi could ask what ge'hutuune meant. She had stopped in front of the burned out bulkheads of a few starships next to a row of mercenaries, all chained together. The closest one to Yang, a wookiee, flinched a little when she slapped him on the back. Weiss moved to the head of the party and looked at the prisoners.

"I am here to take you to the Republic outpost where you will all be charged with numerous different crimes. It would be much easier for you to simply follow my associate here without making any problems." She drew her lightsaber and activated it, the thin blue blade illuminating her face, emphasizing her point. Jaune motioned for the wookiee to march toward _Beacon_ , a command that was followed immediately.

Weiss turned back to Ruby and deactivated her blade, returning it to her belt. "You mentioned hunting Sith? Jaune and I would be happy to help you, not that you need any assistance on the combat side of things."

Ruby took her helmet off and Weiss was surprised to see energetic silver eyes meet hers. "We're looking for a deserter, not hunting Sith. Plus, I don't like to split the credits from a job."

"I'm not interested in any of the credits, trust me. I just feel that it is the will of the Force that I assist you. I'm sure we could speed the process up."

Ruby paused to consider it, looking back to her sister for her opinion. A shrug from Yang made Ruby turn around and meet Weiss' eyes once again.

"Very well, if you agree not to take command of this job, we'll have you on as help. Deal?"

Weiss bowed and replied, "Of course, it's a deal. Thank you."

"Haat, ijaa, haa'it," the sisters replied in unison, making Weiss raise her eyebrows in curiosity.

"What does that mean?"

"It's the words to seal a agreement. Translated to basic it pretty much just means truth, honor, vision." Yang informed her.

"I see. Haat, ijaa, haa'it, then." Weiss stumbled over the strange words, but if she had made a horrible mispronunciation or offended Ruby's culture she didn't show it. Instead Ruby smiled and held a hand out to the young Jedi.

"Then it's settled! You're stuck with us. We'll go over the job when we get the prisoners off your ship."

 **Hey, thanks for reading so far, I'll keep this pretty brief at the end because I don't think many people stick around for author's notes anyway. Thanks for any and all comments. I'm very thankful and open to any criticism you want to share! As far as updates go, I'm going to shoot for weekly after next chapter, I just wanted to try to get the plot moving to start up. It may get a little more spaced out come August when classes start up again, but that's a problem for future DtheTrain. Thanks again for reading and have a rad day!**


	4. Chapter Three

**Chapter Three**

* * *

"Commander, I had no idea you'd been stationed here! It is very good to see you again!"

Jaune usually tried his hardest not to eavesdrop on his friends, but hearing Weiss talking to someone with actual joy in her voice had caught him off guard. A new, distorted voice replied, "Hello! It is a pleasure to hear from you again as well, Weiss! When my communication officer told me who had replied from the _Beacon_ I made sure to be here!"

"Well I shall be able to greet you face to face soon, Pyrrha, we're preparing to land now. Requesting final approach vectors."

"Transmitting. I'll see you in a few!"

A few moments passed and Weiss exited the cockpit and motioned to Jaune to follow her. He sighed and got out of his seat, respectfully bowing to his master before walking after his friend. When they reached the door to the cargo hold, Weiss started to talk to her master, Goodwitch. Jaune didn't even try to listen in to that conversation.

It's not that he disliked master Goodwitch. She was just, well, terrifying. Weiss told him he'd get used to her mannerisms and see the kind and caring woman beneath the cold, strict, scary exterior. That had been a little over a year ago and Jaune still hadn't been able to believe Weiss was telling him the truth.

"Hey, Jaune-y boy, we about ready to send these fine gentlemen off to vacation?" Came the bubbly voice of Yang as she clapped him on the back, throwing Jaune to the ground with the sheer weight of the pat. This only made Yang start to laugh a bit as Ruby moved to help him up.

"Thanks, Ruby. Yeah, we're landing now, the outpost commander is coming out to meet us. I guess she and Weiss are old buddies or something."

"Well, the quicker we get paid for this side job, the quicker we can get back to our mission," Ruby replied.

"Jaune! Master Oobleck wishes to remind you to keep your lightsaber in sight at all times!" came a chipper voice behind him. He turned around to see P3-N1 holding out his lightsaber and smiling.

'Great,' he thought defeated, 'It's bad enough when Weiss catches me forgetting my lightsaber, now these two have witnessed it. And I doubt Yang is one to ignore a chance to tease someone, even if they are a Jedi.'

His suspicions were confirmed moments later as Yang doubled over in laughter, "Forgot your lightsaber? Isn't that a violation of some kind of Jedi code or something?"

"Yang," Ruby warned, but Yang continued anyway.

"Of all the Jedi in the galaxy we get stuck with the absent minded one!" Yang let out another barrage of laughter as Ruby moved closer to Jaune, who could feel his face redden from embarrassment.

"Don't pay too much attention to her, she just likes to tease. I'm sure you're highly competent," Ruby offered. "This is probably the first time you've ever done this, or something!"

"Actually, Jaune has forgotten his lightsaber twelve times this year!" Penny supplied with a smile, oblivious to the attempt to comfort Jaune. This only made Jaune's face get redder and Yang's laughter to get louder, the word "Twelve" coming out in disbelief multiple times.

"Heh, yeah, I tend to be a bit of a klutz," Jaune started, rubbing the back of his neck nervously, "But I'm not useless, I promise!"

"He's defiantly not useless," Weiss spoke up as she walked over to the group. "I've known Jaune a little over a year and I've not once seen anything get past his lightsaber." Ruby raised her eyebrow at this and Yang tried to stop laughing, wiping tears from her eyes.

"She's exaggerating…I'm nothing special…Just, well, competent?" He supplied. Thankfully, the conversation was cut short as the _Beacon_ touched down at the Outpost.

"Jaune, would you go collect the prisoners?" Jaune nodded and, after clipping his lightsaber to his belt, walked into the cargo hold to drag the mercenaries to jail.

"Alright, everybody up, this is your stop!" he shouted to the chained people crammed into the hold. "Single file out this door down the hall, you there," he pointed to the wookiee he had led on to the ship, "You can lead." Slowly, the criminals rose to their feet, following the one-armed wookiee out to the boarding ramp of the ship.

He counted heads as they exited the hold, getting to twenty-five before the final mercenary walked passed him. He took position at the end of the line and marched them off the ship and into the holding tank the soldiers were guiding them to, closing the door behind the final criminal. One of the soldiers turned to him.

"Sir, Commander Nikos and the rest of your party are this way, if you would follow me." Jaune nodded and followed as requested into the outpost proper.

It was nothing special, some permacrete walls with the bare minimum decorations to signify this as a military outpost. The interior wasn't much better, plain walls and a square floor plan. 'Very military,' he thought as he made his way down the hallway before stopping behind the soldier.

"The commander is right through this room, sir."

"Thank you, you have been of great service," Jaune replied to the soldier, remembering the polite way of dealing with Republic officials his master had taught him. The soldier gave a salute, Jaune bowed, and the soldier walked off to do something else. The door was unlocked, and a simple flick of the door control had it slide open to a sight Jaune's training had never prepared him for.

In the center of the office standing behind a simple desk stood the most stunning woman Jaune had ever seen. Bright red hair fell over her shoulder, red-gold armor plates shining in the artificial white light. Her emerald eyes shone as she smiled at Weiss. Jaune was too dumbstruck to notice, but he'd likely be just as surprised to see that Weiss was smiling right back at the girl.

"JAUNE! What's wrong?" Weiss shouted in his direction.

"Huh, what? What do you mean?" Jaune replied, confused as to why Weiss was starting the conversation with shouting. That usually came later.

"I was asking if the prisoners are secured," She was obviously annoyed at him for some reason, "and you just sat there with a dumb look on your face!"

"That was a look?" Yang asked through the speakers of her helmet.

"Oh, sorry, yeah, they're all in lockup. Job done." He let out a meek smile and gave a small thumbs up to Weiss.

"Excellent. Jaune, I'd like you to meet Commander Pyrrha Nikos, an old friend of mine."

Pyrrha smiled warmly at him and waved, "Hello!" He gathered his thoughts and found the proper mannerisms to reply.

"Hello, I'm Jaune Arc, apprentice to…"

"She already knows, dude, calm down with the formalities!" Yang said as she gently punched him in the arm. It still hurt like crazy, but thankfully it wasn't hard enough to send him to the ground again.

"Yes, Weiss introduced you in your absence, it is a pleasure to meet you!"

"Good, good, now let's get to business, shall we?" An impatient Ruby asked. Weiss nodded and moved to a holoprojector on the desk.

"Like I was saying before Jaune got here, if this is some Sith runaway, it's likely that she's hiding here," the projection zoomed into the ruins of the old Jedi Enclave. "It would help hide her from any force-sensitive trackers, as well as offer a defensive position if she was attacked."

Pyrrha nodded, "It's also very out of the way. There's not a lot left to pick off of the ruins, so not a lot of salvagers feel the need to take the trip. We've had a few hunters report uneasy feelings in the area, but that's likely just old superstitions. I think it's worth a shot."

Ruby nodded as she accepted the information, "It's a better idea than Yang and I have had. When can we leave to check it out?"

"We can leave tonight, but I'd suggest waiting until light to explore the ruins. There's a sizable laigrek colony in the area that is extremely active at night."

"It's settled. You tagging along, Nikos?" Ruby asked the redhead who nodded with enthusiasm.

"If you'll allow it! Traveling with Weiss is always bound to be more exciting than sitting behind a desk managing an out of the way outpost."

"You'll work for free like the Jedi, right?" Yang asked bluntly.

"I'm on the Republic's payroll, so yes, I will not be taking a share of the credits for this reward."

'Wait,' Jaune thought to himself mortified, 'She's coming with us?'

* * *

"So you spent a week making that and you didn't even give it a name?" Ruby was confused. After building Crescent Rose and Ember Celica, their names had been so obvious!

"No, it's not really the custom in the Jedi Order." Weiss looked equally shocked. It had only been ten minutes after they were dropped off in the field outside the old enclave before the red Mandalorian had started asking questions about their lightsabers. They had finally set up a perimeter and settled down in their makeshift camp. Ruby thought it was a little odd that Jaune seemed to put his bedroll as far away from the commander's as he could but decided to just let it slip, lest Yang get another shot at embarrassing the poor man.

"Well let me at least introduce you to my baby! Weiss, Jaune, Commander, meet Crescent Rose!" Ruby grinned as she pulled out her strange weapon and allowed it to transform fully, planting the scythe into the ground in front of her. She was a little pleased to see Jaune flinch, but Weiss simply eyed the exotic weapon with curiosity and Pyrrha giggled a little.

"Please, Ruby, call me Pyrrha! And that is an extremely odd weapon! I thought it was a sniper rifle when it was slung over your back."

Ruby's grin widened and she heard Yang groan. This was her chance to praise her darling weapon – a chance she'd waited hours to come. "It's both! Crescent Rose is a one-of-a-kind high caliber sniper scythe! She fires specialized slugs designed and handmade by yours truly at extremely high velocities and is significantly more accurate then a traditional blaster and doesn't give away your position with a big dumb blast of light! The rifle body is durasteel, but the blade, barrel, and spear are made of the same alloy as Yang and my armor! Beskar – Mandalorian iron. In the hands of a master smith, it's the toughest stuff in the galaxy!" When Ruby stopped for a breath, Yang covered her mouth with her hand.

"Woah, there Rub'ika. I don't think they want to hear the full story." Ruby pouted a little at the diminutive, but her smile returned quickly when Jaune finally seemed to find his words again.

"You're telling me you fight with that? It's huge!"

"Yup!" She folded it up and tossed it to the Jedi who grunted and almost fell over when he caught it.

"How can it be so heavy? How can you do anything with it?"

Ruby simply laughed as she picked it up effortlessly with one hand and draped it back over her shoulder. "It's pretty light compared to what I used to train! I guess I just don't notice it anymore. So I've shown you mine…" She looked around the camp excitedly, hoping to be able to get a closer look at a real lightsaber. Her excitement was rewarded as Jaune unclipped a cylinder from his belt and tossed it to her.

"The activation switch is on the side, the open end is where the blade comes out, so be careful," he warned her. Immediately, she thumbed the switch he pointed out and a bright beam of golden yellow light about one and a half meters long. What surprised her most was the difficulty of moving the blade in a straight line. The confusion on her face got a soft chuckle out of Jaune as he held out his hand. Before she could deactivate the blade and hand it to him, it jumped out of her hand and flew to his where he flourished it before deactivating it and clipping it back to his belt.

"I know, it feels a little weird at first. You want to think that just because the blade is weightless, it would swing easy." Weiss told the group.

"Heh, yeah, it was cool though! I love the color!"

"Heh, thanks. The crystal was a little hard to find, but the regular yellow wasn't really cutting it, ya'know? "

"So it has to be yellow? I thought Jedi got to choose the color of their lightsaber." Yang cut in curiously.

"Yeah, most do. My master is a stickler for the old ways, though. I was trained to walk the path of a Sentinel, the catch all generalist of the old days. They had yellow blades, so I had to make a yellow lightsaber. Found the yellow gold crystal when I built it though, thought it'd add a nice touch, I guess."

"Huh. What about you, Weiss? What's your lightsaber like?" Ruby turned her sights on the female Jedi as soon as Jaune finished his explanation.

"Technically, it's more like a lightfoil," she explained as she activated the thin blade of cold, blue light. "It's thinner and lends itself well to my style of combat. Other than that, it's essentially the same thing as Jaune's." She let Ruby get a good look before deactivating it with a hiss and putting it back on her belt. "I'm much more interested in that giant repeater your sister lugs around. What company even makes a blaster like that?"

Yang brightened up at the mention of her Ember Celica and hefted it in front of her so the group could get a good look. "Rubes made it for me from scratch, just like her weapon! You'd be hard pressed to find a better arms and armor gal then my sister on Mandalore!" She grinned, obviously happy to shower praise on her sister, much to Ruby's distaste.

"I'm not that impressive, Yang," Ruby protested but was cut off by Pyrrha, of all people.

"Nonsense! I've never seen such incredible craftsmanship! If you have time, do you think you could look at my rifle? I'm sure it could use a bit of a craftsman's touch, and I would be more than happy to pay for your time."

"Sure, I guess" Ruby rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly. It's not that she didn't want to take a look at her rifle – Ruby thought every weapon was a unique and important identifier of the person wielding it, she just wasn't very good with people outside of arranging work.

"You have my thanks!"

"I think it's time we start heading to sleep," Weiss interrupted, "I volunteer for first watch." Ruby nodded in agreement and went off to the mat she had set out in front of a rock, making sure to keep Crescent Rose within arm's reach. She donned her helmet, sealed it, and leaned back to catch some sleep after making sure it was patched into the perimeter's motion sensors.

* * *

Blake Belladonna was as still as the grave until the group settled down to sleep. Only then did she take a breath and back out towards the ruins behind her. When she was safe in the Archives, she began readying herself for the fight she was sure to come. 'They must have found out what I've actually done. That's the only reason they would send Jedi to kill me. I guess I had it coming, but I really thought the Republic would be a little more understanding instead of just seeking revenge.' She sighed deeply before falling asleep on top of one of the shelves, trusting her training to keep it a light sleep so she could awake at the first sign of intruders.


	5. Chapter Four

**Chapter Four**

* * *

Blake spent the rest of the night in an extremely restless sleep. Every time she closed her eyes, another face popped up, frozen in anguish. She hadn't even given a passing thought to the lives she had taken as an assassin until tonight, she thought that they had long since vanished from her memory, yet here they were parading in front of her restless eyes. After the second hour of pointless attempts at sleep, Blake gave in and popped a few caff tablets.

Every noise that echoed in the enclave sublevel set Blake on edge. Every time a laigrek scuttled past the archive door. Every time the ruin's foundation shifted a miniscule amount. A few kath hounds howled in the night, no doubt having found the body of their fallen pack mate. Blake's heightened senses caught everything in their hyper aware state as she waited for the Jedi to come kill her. 'Well, try to kill me.'

* * *

Morning came fairly quickly – after only three two hour watches. Yang wasn't really a morning person, but her vod'ika was the very definition. By the time Yang's helmet woke her up, Ruby was almost done packing the perimeter sensors away.

Looking around the camp, she saw Jaune collecting small amounts of wood from fallen trees, Pyrrha was pulling out the rations the party had brought with them from the outpost, setting five aside before packing the remainder away. Weiss was, surprisingly, floating above the ground in what Yang assumed to be meditation while her lightsaber and various small rocks and lose grasses floated around with her.

Shaking the sleep from her eyes, Yang started on her morning ritual. Walking over to the small creek they had camped next to, she started removing her helmet and the plates of her armor, stacking them neatly on a rock. She peeled off the body suit and washed it in the creek. Usually she'd do this while bathing herself, but the creek was far too shallow to allow it.

"Yang? What are you doing?" Jaune's voice was wary and before turning to look at him, Yang knew that the young Jedi had to be blushing, probably either turned around or staring at his feet.

"Enjoying the show, Jauney boy?" She grinned while working the last of the sweat out of the protective bodysuit.

"No! I'd never! I…Uh…" Yang started laughing at the man's obvious discomfort.

"No? I'm a little offended!" Yang stood, picking her now clean body suit up with her to wring it out so it could dry before turning to face the boy. "I've been spending all these years thinking I was oiri mesh'la!" She teased him with a wolfish grin.

"Yang, leave the poor boy alone, just because you lack all modesty doesn't mean he does too." Ruby had the commanding tone in her voice that told Yang not to push it, so she didn't. She gave Weiss, who was just starting to come out of her meditation a wink before kneeling back down to wash the dirt from her armor. Behind her she heard Weiss and Ruby guide Jaune back into the world of the functional, Weiss being surprisingly supportive of her teammate.

'Maybe they're an item? Nah, I don't think Jedi are allowed to do that. It makes for good ammunition though.' Yang grinned to herself as her practiced hands shook the moisture from her armor and set it back on top of the dry rock.

Confirming that the fast drying body suit was living up to its name, Yang squeezed herself back into it. Almost ritualistically she reapplied her armor, saving the only piece painted differently for last –her white right gauntlet.

More comfortable with the weight of her armor again added to her bodyweight, she tucked her helmet under her arm and walked over to where Jaune had started a small cook fire to heat the meals.

"Mornin' everybody!" Yang smiled, giving a wink to Jaune before she sat down, pleased to see the Jedi blush and look away. "How was last watch?"

"Thankfully uneventful," Pyrrha replied, "A few kath hounds got curious but just continued on their way."

"That's too bad, Ruby's always wanted a pet"

"Yaaang, kath hounds aren't pets. Pets are cute and mostly harmless! Kath hounds are, well, ugly and smelly. And kinda' dumb."

"Sure, sure. Hey, Weiss, were you levitating earlier?" Weiss looked up at her name and finished chewing her current bite.

"Yes, I may have been. I was trying to identify whether or not our Sith deserter was in the area."

Yang grinned, seeing an opportunity to get a rise out of the composed woman, "Looked to me like you were just sitting around on air, princess"

"It's called meditation, Yang, it's a way of calming your mind to be more receptive to the Force," she quickly defended, calm as ever.

Yang frowned internally, she'd have to up the stakes to get something out of the cold Jedi. "Are you sure you weren't just thinking about peeping Jaune over there?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Her eyes narrowed as her hand went to rest on her hip. Yang grinned, 'Now for the kill.'

"It's just that you seemed a little too quick to get Jauney boy out of my sights a few minutes ago. Jealous that he's finally getting an eyeful of a proper dala like myself?" Yang smiled wide and sent another wink to Jaune who seemed to be trying his hardest to vanish from this conversation.

"How dare you insinuate something that…vulgar!"

'Ice Queen cracked,' Yang thought to herself before laughing and putting her hands up in mock defeat, "Whoa, sorry, just a little teasing!"

"Heh, it's alright, I think. She's just not good at taking…erm…jokes?" Jaune spoke up for the first time, surprisingly composed. "Our masters aren't really known for their senses of humor, and Weiss takes after master Goodwitch quite a bit." He moved his arm to try to calm down Weiss before continuing. "Jedi aren't allowed to form attachments like that, you see. It was a joke for you, sure, but Weiss tends to take jabs at her adherence to our code very personally."

"You're not upset at all, Jaune?" Ruby asked.

"Me? No. I admit it's a little of an embarrassing situation for me to be in, but I have a few friends back at the Temple who are a lot like Yang," he explained.

"She was like this when I met her too," Pyrrha added before moving next to Weiss, "The boys in the barracks tried cracking a few jokes about her…delightful personality. She almost cracked a few of their bones before Master Goodwitch stepped in and calmed her down." She giggled at the memory.

"I'm…sorry I lost my composure." Weiss told the group after a minute, returning her hand to her hip before continuing, "As I was saying before Yang interrupted, I was trying to find the deserter we're looking for in the Force. There was too much swirling Force energy around the enclave, but I could feel a group marching towards our position that was cloaked in the dark side, possibly the group you and Yang were trying to find before you met us. If you are all done with your meals, maybe we should put together some form of game plan for exploring those ruins before they arrive?"

"That's a fantastic plan! I was thinking we could start at the top and work our way down, but then I thought that maybe that big courtyard in the middle that was there last time didn't really have anything in it and then we were chased out by some angry kath hounds, so this time I was thinking that we would explore the sublevel underground even though there are a lot of laigreks that like to hide around in the shadows created by all those failing lights so maybe not this time but then I ran into you guys and…"The new voice stopped talking when Ruby had brought Crescent Rose's blade to her throat. It belonged to a short girl with bright orange hair and a demolitions vest. Loaded with ordinance to make most of the guys back home nervous, Yang noted. The newcomer put her hands up in surrender and surprise and quickly spit out, "I'm sorry I thought since you guys seemed to be going into the old enclave and Ren and I are going into the old enclave that we could go together?"

"Wait, who's Ren?" Came Jaune's voice before Yang could even process any of what the orange haired girl had said.

"Oh, Ren's my best friend! He and I go exploring old ruins together…well, not together together, but you get the picture!"

"Nora, please, stop antagonizing the Jedi." Came a new voice from a few meters behind them.

"Sorry Ren!"

Yang had yet to catch any of what the fast talking girl was saying, and by the looks of it, neither had most of the others. "Wait, wait, wait, slow down, who are you?"

"They're explorers, right?" Jaune looked to the girl, Nora, to see an excited nod in confirmation.

"How did you understand all of that?" Pyrrha asked incredulously.

"My master talks pretty fast too, I guess you sorta' get used to it?" He replied with a shrug. "Ruby, please let the girl go, she's not dangerous."

"Not dangerous? She's carrying enough explosives to make a crater the size of a city!" Ruby told the group before reluctantly returning Crescent Rose to her back. The new voice, Yang supposed it had to be Ren, caught up and caught his breath.

"Oh, yeah! Those are for rocks or doors or laigreks that get in Ren and my way! I'd never use them on you guys! You look so nice!" Nora bounced on her feet away from Ruby's weapon and behind Ren, her smile not faltering for a second.

"You said you had explored these ruins before?" Asked Weiss, apparently equally unfazed by the speed at which Nora talks as Jaune.

"Yes, we looked around the top levels a few days ago before we ran out of supplies and had to leave to get more," replied the man, rising to his full height. Yang wasn't sure how he put up with Nora at all, he talked like a reasonable person.

"Then would you be willing to guide us down to the sublevel?" Ruby asked, "If there really are that many laigreks, more people could come in handy. Especially in close quarters."

"Of course! That sounds like so much fun! Doesn't that sound like fun, Ren?"

Ren sighed, "I apologize for my friend's…abrasiveness. I am called Ren, she's Nora. We'd be honored to help the Jedi." He gave a respectful bow to the group that Jaune and Weiss returned in kind.

"Hi! I'm Yang, this is Ruby, Weiss, Jaune, and Pyrrha!" Yang pointed at each of the party, not waiting to let them introduce themselves, "Now we've got that out of the way, let's head down to the ruins!" Yang put on her helmet and hefted Ember Celica to her shoulder, tired of waiting around.

It seems like that was the catalyst the group needed to get moving, as Ruby donned her own helmet and motioned for Weiss to join her at the head of the group. They made their way to the ruins, quietly talking to themselves. Even though Yang was walking next to an excited Nora, she still managed to overhear Weiss ask Ruby what exactly they knew about the deserter they were tracking.

 **This should be the last time something in Blake's POV is so short! That's not to say she'll have more to say...she's still Blake... but she should at least be present for more exciting events then reading books and waiting for Weiss and co. to track her down! Also, I'm going to put it in concrete and say I'll be updating Thursdays from now own.**


	6. Chapter Five

**Chapter Five**

* * *

Weiss would be much happier with operational control over the entire party, but it seems Ruby had been serious when she said she wanted to remain in charge. All she could do was trust that this was the will of the Force.

The walk to the enclave ruins only took a few minutes, and soon Nora and Ren had led the party to the only surviving entrance to the sublevel.

"Here's something," Pyrrha called out from the edge of the grass, "A dead kath hound. Killed by a blaster bolt to the head. Looks like the killer was moving to hide it before they ran off," she postulated.

"Well, at least we know someone is around here. Nora, do you have any idea what the layout of the sublevel is?" Weiss asked, knowing better than trying to ask Ren the question, as Nora would likely answer it for him anyway. She still couldn't figure out how they got along.

"Oh! Yes, Ren and I managed to get through the door last time before a group of laigreks attacked and we realized we'd need more ammunition and explosives to get through to the rest of the exploring so we left!"

"There's two paths: one to the right and one to the left. We didn't go down either, but if the upper floors are anything to go by, they meet each other in some large room," Ren said calmly, recognizing that Nora hadn't actually answered Weiss' question.

"Right, Weiss and I will go right as team aurek, Yang, Pyrrha, and Jaune will head left as team besh, and if Nora doesn't mind, I'd like you to make another search of the ground floor as team cresh while making sure our exit doesn't crumble Ren. If anyone finds anything, contact me immediately. Try not to kill whoever is in there before we know if it's the deserter or not. If it is the deserter, we want her alive and in top condition. If it's not…" Ruby shrugged instead of finishing the sentence, her meaning very clear from the context. Weiss had to admit - when it came to an operation Ruby was nothing short of confident. Ren nodded at the assignment and pulled Nora away to go sweep the top floor.

Yang and Pyrrha were already trying to lift the door open before Jaune pushed them aside. With a simple motion, the door was forced open and team besh moved in cautiously. Weiss smiled to herself. Jaune would never admit to it, what with his incredible pools of modesty, but he really was an extremely talented Jedi. A voice crackled in her commlink, "Cresh, we are heading down now."

"You got it, Ruby! We'll make sure nothing from up here tries to kill you! Or eat you! Does she have to be dead for them…" A brief scuffle came over the comm before Ren's voice replaced Nora's.

"Roger, aurek." Weiss let out a sigh, thankful that Ren had had the good judgement to take away Nora's comm bead before the entire group had to endure her excited ramblings for the entire operation.

"Weiss, this way," came Ruby's voice, her external speakers turned down so it was barely a whisper. She pointed with the collapsed form of her weapon in the direction they were to go and Weiss nodded before drawing her own weapon, just to be safe.

They walked in silence for a few moments, taking care to be as quiet as possible. 'I thought Pyrrha said there was a large colony of laigreks here. I haven't seen one.' Weiss thought to herself before Jaune's voice came crackling over the comm.

"I can sense a large group of creatures down the hall from me. We'll try to dispatch them quietly, but I thought I'd let everyone know."

"Roger, besh, thanks for the heads up," Ruby answered him simply before turning to Weiss, "What about you, can you…uh…sense anything?"

Weiss held up her finger for a moment as she let her senses expand outward from her body. Jaune had always been good at keeping this sort of action up at all times, Weiss wasn't as fortunate. She'd always only been able to passively sense a lifeform when it meant her harm, she usually had to focus for a moment to do a passive scan.

"No, I can't sense any creatures close to us. None that mean us harm, anyway." She responded confidently.

"It seems that the hive is concentrated on the left side of the structure then."

"A bit curious, don't you think?"

"What do you mean?" Ruby stopped walking and turned to face Weiss, her head cocked in curiosity. If she was actually curious or just messing with Weiss, Weiss couldn't tell – the helmet hid all of her current partner's expressions and the speakers ridded her words of almost all minute expression.

"Well, look around. There are dead laigreks every few yards in this hall, even more in some of the rooms. You'd think that a laigrek hive, being extremely territorial, would be here in greater numbers to force out or kill the intruder instead of simply staying away from it," Weiss explained her suspicion, drawing on the once over she gave the planet's dossier.

Ruby nodded, "Now that you mention it that does seem odd."

"You're sure you don't know who this deserter is?"

"No, I don't have any information outside of what the Republic knew. A high-priority deserter from the Brotherhood of Darkness is in the area. Republic Intelligence wants her in for questioning and whatnot, but it seems like they have absolutely no information regarding who exactly she is."

"So it could be a Sith acolyte or something?" Weiss asked, more rhetorically than anything.

"I suppose, why?"

"Well, if our individual knew how to use the Force while she was clearing out these beasts, she might be able to make them less inclined to reappear in this area during her stay."

"You think that's what's happening?"

"I can't say for sure. This place is like a concentrated whirlwind of Force energies, both light and dark. I suppose that makes it a perfect hiding spot for a Sith or a Jedi."

Ruby nodded and changed her clip, "Well, if I see a red lightsaber, I'm dropping her. No reward is worth transporting an uncooperative Sithling." She paused for a moment to broadcast over the comm, "Besh, cresh, be advised that our resident expert over here believes it's possible we're dealing with a rouge Sith Acolyte. If you see a red lightsaber, you're very much authorized to use deadly force. If not, nothing in the plan changes."

"Ni suvari, vod!" Yang's voice came, obviously excited by the notion of deadly force. While Weiss didn't recognize the language she spoke in, it sounded like an affirmative if she'd ever heard one. Ren's response, on the other hand was as calm as he had been earlier when Nora had surprised the camp.

"Affirmative, thank you aurek."

Ruby motioned for them to continue walking down the dark halls of the sublevel.

* * *

"So, Jaune, are you undergoing your Trials along with Weiss?" Pyrrha asked. She really hoped to get to know this young man a bit better, especially after Yang told her how Weiss had jumped to defend his skills earlier. 'He must be remarkable,' she thought to herself, 'He certainly looks like it. I don't think a single laigrek has gotten near Yang while he's defended her position.' A smart pivot brought another laigrek into her sights and a pull of her trigger saw its head burst on contact with the plasma bolt fired from her weapon.

"Huh? Oh, no, I'm just tagging along because the Force willed it or something," he replied while expertly disarming two laigreks that had tried to sneak up on Yang, who was in the process of unloading her repeater into the hole in the ground the creatures were scuttling out of. Very loudly, Pyrrha might add.

"So what, one of your masters see you and Snow Angel holding hands against insurmountable adversity and thought, 'yeah, must be the force!'" Yang asked, her speakers turned up substantially to make it over the roar of her weapon.

"Not exactly, it was Weiss who had the vision, they just helped her interpret it," he shrugged as he sliced another laigrek in two.

Pyrrha moved closer to the Jedi as she let loose five shots to five different laigreks, all but one hitting their mark. The one she missed leapt at her, but before she could even react, Jaune's lightsaber was sticking out of its chest, flying back to his hand before the creature even hit the ground. She nodded to him in gratitude and he smiled back for a moment and reached out to catch his lightsaber as it was called back to his hand.

"I'm still surprised that you took Yang's teasing so well, Weiss would have had a fit!" Pyrrha said while picking off a laigrek that decided to strike while Jaune's lightsaber was in transit. This time it was Jaune's turn to nod a thank you to Pyrrha, his smile not leaving his face as he walked a few steps closer to Yang, dispatching angry laigreks before looking at the pile of thirty plus creatures that had fallen to Yang's blaster.

"Yeah, well, like I said. Not all Jedi are so strict. My friend Sun always said that all the 'uptightedness' in the Jedi Order was concentrated on Weiss and her master."

"The friend that used to make a lot of jokes?" Yang's voice roared.

"Yeah, that one," Jaune smiled as he reached his hand out and pushed most of the dead laying in front of Yang back into the hole, clogging it up.

It was simple to clean up the straggling laigreks after that, Jaune pointing out which rooms they would come from and Pyrrha and Yang picking them off with their blasters. After they had been cleared out, Pyrrha moved to reload her weapon when she felt something warm and sticky on her hip.

"Blast it," she mumbled to herself as she looked at the small gash in her bodysuit below her chest plate, "One of them got me between the armor." She started to take out the bacta she had brought before Jaune walked over to her, a look of concern in his deep blue eyes. 'Very blue eyes,' Pyrrha started to think, 'Warmer than I thought they'd be - older too. Nothing like the goofy, laid back persona he puts out. Has he always been this…'

"Pyrrha? Are you alright? Where? Is it serious? C'mon give me an answer!" Jaune's voice finally registered in her head as she snapped herself out of it.

"It's nothing serious, I'll be fine. Some bacta and it'll clear up in a day or so!" She responded, forcing herself to sound cheerful despite the pain of the wound starting to show up as the rush of combat wore off.

"Don't waste it, let me," he said moving closer and putting a hand over her wound. She moved to stop him before feeling a warm, friendly sensation where the wound had been. A soft yellow light – the same yellow as his lightsaber – encased his hand and when he withdrew it and the light dimmed her wound had vanished.

"Osi'kyr! What was that?" Yang exclaimed, sounding more like a shout than the gasp she had given. She paused for a moment and spoke again, this time at her normal volume, "What did you do there, jetii?"

"Oh, heh, sorry, you two have probably never seen a Jedi heal before," he said while holding his neck again.

"I didn't really know such a thing was possible. Sure there were stories in the academy, but the Jedi I'd met before have never been able to do that!" Pyrrha said excitedly. 'Sure, I've only really met Weiss and her master, Goodwitch, but an ability like that seemed like the kind of thing every Jedi should know,' she thought.

Apparently guessing what she was thinking, Jaune continued, "Every Jedi can manipulate the Force to send themselves into a sort of restorative trance, but the technique for actually healing oneself and others like that isn't really something Weiss or master Goodwitch have a knack for. Those two are much more focused on mastering the more…offensive skills of the light side."

"Well, that's dumb! That seems way more useful than anything I've seen either of you do with the Force so far!"

"Well, it's a limited technique. Most Jedi can only handle regenerating small cuts and bruises. A lot of the time battlefield healers just stop wounds from killing their patients before shipping them off for bacta treatment. I'm already a little more gifted of a healer than that, but I'm still only able to handle wounds that probably wouldn't kill you by themselves," he shrugged to the Mandalorian girl.

"Well, thank you very much, Jaune. I really appreciate it," Pyrrha finally said, making sure to put as much genuine warmth and appreciation as she could in her voice, smiling a little farther when he started to blush a before turning around and motioning for them to continue.

 **Right, so far all we've encountered so far in this story are mooks, so when Blake shows up it should get less chatty and more action-y.**


	7. Chapter Six

**Chapter Six**

* * *

Blake heard the sounds of a heavy blaster echo down the hall from her. 'Now is the perfect time to get around them and run for it, even if they brought galaxy's most sensitive Jedi or a special droid with some kind of Force scanning ability with them, they'll be too concentrated on the fight at hand to see through my shadow.' She took a deep breath and sat down in front of the fountain, 'Not all of them are fighting. They've probably got someone covering the exit. I can't slip through darkness as well during the middle of the day.'

A voice was outside the door, speaking a little more loudly than necessary and with a certain quality about it that just screamed Jedi, "This must be the door to the enclave's archives. It makes the most sense for someone to hide here, it's obviously the most secure place in the area."

Another voice joined her, slightly quieter but distorted – as if it were coming out of a speaker, "I agree, if there is someone down here, they'd be inside. And now she's aware of our presence, so we lose any element of surprise in case they're dangerous."

"I thought we were going on the assumption that she weren't dangerous!"

"No, I just said that I didn't think they'd be dangerous. You're the one who came up with the idea of her being a Sith acolyte!"

'Wait,' Blake thought, grasping the meaning of the conversation outside the archive, 'They don't know who…what I am? They're not here for revenge?' She knew it may be a little rash, but Blake stood up and walked to the door, sliding Gambol Shroud back into its sheath. The voices outside were still bickering as someone began playing with the control panel, and with a press of a button Blake opened the door for them. Before she could fully react, the girl on the left had activated her lightsaber and raised it to strike. Blake took a few steps back and called out to them, feigning cowardice, "Wait! Please don't hurt me!"

The Jedi caught herself and lowered the weapon. Blake let her eyes scan the girl: she was young, probably in her early 20s, and had very pale skin. She was wearing cream colored robes typical of the Coruscanti Jedi Order, a pure white plastoid chest plate with a snowflake embossed on the upper right of the armor. Most of her stark white hair was pulled into an off-centered pony-tail, out of the way of cold, light blue eyes. A few strands sat opposite her pony-tail behind her ear in an elaborate braid. 'A padawan? Why did they send a padawan?'

Blake was reminded that there were two people in the doorway when a distorted voice asked a question, "Are you the deserter from the Brotherhood of Darkness?" Blake nodded, surprised to see the characteristic t-shaped visor of a Mandalorian staring at her, an unusual rifle hanging on her back below what looked to be a jump pack. Most of her armor was painted blood red, with black and silver paint around the trim, the exception being her left gauntlet which was painted white. A Mythosaur skull with a pointed silver cross in the background was painted on her left pauldron and a silver rose crest on her right. The Mandalorian girl continued, "We're here on behalf of the Republic military. They'd like to offer you protection and amnesty in exchange for information."

Blake couldn't believe what was happening, 'All they want is some information? They don't even know what I've done?' She found her voice again and replied, "I might be interested, but what makes you so sure I need protection from the Brotherhood? And who's to provide it?"

"You will be escorted by my associates and I to a secure Republic facility. After that, I'm not sure." The Mandalorian girl shrugged indifferently before continuing, "And I'm sure you need protection. The Republic only knows about you after intercepting the orders meant for one of the Brotherhood's top assassins."

Blake's heart stopped. She was afraid to ask who, as she was sure she was sure she already knew, but did it anyway. "And who, tell, would that be?" To her credit, Blake managed to hide every ounce of real panic from her voice, speaking instead with a voice laced with caution. She was a little surprised when the Jedi answered the question instead of the Mandalorian girl, who Blake was sure had been in charge.

"All we have is a name, honestly. Adam Taurus. Republic Intelligence believes him to be a high ranking assassin working for one of the Brotherhood's most elusive Sith Lords. I sensed a party of Sith moving toward the enclave this morning and I have no doubt that he has something to do with them." The Mandalorian nodded and stepped forward.

"Which is all the more reason we need to get you out of here right now. I don't know who you are to warrant such a manhunt, and frankly I don't care. The Republic is paying me to see you safely to a safe house and I intend to do just that, with or without your consent." The Mandalorian balled one of her hands into a fist and cracked her knuckles, making a surprisingly loud sound through the armored gauntlets.

Blake looked into the eyes of the girls in front of her. Or, rather, she looked into the Jedi's eyes and the Mandalorian's visor. It would not do to agree too quickly – Blake didn't want to give the Jedi any reason to be more suspicious of her background than she already was. It was time to play the part of a simple officer, "I don't even know you're telling the truth. You could just be leading me into one this Sith assassin's traps." She allowed some of the fear she was feeling to mix into her voice, hoping to take advantage of the average Jedi's tendency to defend the weak at all costs.

"That's preposterous," the Jedi started to protest before the Mandalorian girl cut her off with a hand sign.

"My name is Ruby Rose of clan Xiao Long. Have you met Mandalorians before?" Blake nodded at the question, remembering the group of Mandalorian mercenaries she'd run into during her academy days on Nar Shaddaa. At this, the girl – Ruby – held out her left gauntlet and said something in the guttural language she'd heard the mercenaries use to talk to each other, most of which she couldn't begin to make out with the limited knowledge of the language she had. She did manage to pick out Ruby's clan name and the words "Haat, ijaa, haa'it" at the tail end. Realizing that the girl had promised to get her safely off of Dantooine, she responded in the way the mercenaries had usually responded to each other when making agreements like this.

Grasping Ruby's extended arm, Blake struggled to recall the way the words were meant to be pronounced before speaking, "Haat. Ija, haa'it. Vor entye, Mando'ad." Looking over to the shocked Jedi, Blake continued to speak, making sure to mix gratitude into the fear already present in her voice to better sell her role as a terrified deserter who doubted her chances. "Thank you for helping me, I apologize for mistrusting you." It wasn't that Blake wasn't grateful to the girls for promising to protect her, at some level she was genuinely grateful. She was just wary to be so close to a Jedi and the Republic. 'If they ever found out who I was, what I did…" She shuddered to think what the Jedi would do to her. Better to hide behind the mask of a fool then show them what I'm truly capable of, and she doubted the Mandalorian could stop her.

The white haired Jedi finally seemed to recover from Blake's apparent grasp of Mando'a and bowed. "Please, don't worry about it. I imagine the only Force users you would have encountered in the Brotherhood left a bad impression."

Blake let out a slight chuckle at her words, 'This girl doesn't know the half of it.'

"I've contacted the rest of our party. We'll be leaving now, if you have anything you need to take, I suggest grabbing it. Pack lightly." Ruby turned around and started walking back the way she'd come in, Weiss nodding at Blake before following. Picking up the holobooks she had started reading, a record of Revan, some great Jedi hero or something and making sure Gambol Shroud was secure at her hip, she followed after them.

When they reached the large room that led to the exit, Blake was a little surprised to see three people waiting for them. The most eye-catching of the three was another Mandalorian female, most of her armor painted in a sandy gold color. Like Ruby, the woman had a single pure white gauntlet, hers over her right hand. She was leaning against the large fountain in the center of the room, an impressive heavy repeating blaster sitting on the fountain's rim beside her.

The Mandalorian was talking to a human woman with short, bright red hair and confident green eyes. She wore a variation of the thin battle armor Blake knew to be issued to commissioned officers in the Republic military. An inviting smile accompanied a wave aimed at Blake with her left hand while her right supported a fairly plan looking blaster rifle.

The least visually striking person in the room, however, was the one Blake's attention focused on first. An unassuming young man in the plain brown robes of the Jedi order stood talking to Weiss and Ruby. His blonde hair was messy and unkempt, save the braid marking him as a padawan. Blake could practically feel the light side of the Force radiate from the young Jedi, outshining Weiss and many of the fully-fledged Jedi and Sith Blake had met in the past with his sheer presence in the Force. For a moment, his dark blue eyes locked with hers, and he frowned. Blake could feel his gaze pass right through the cloak of Force energy she used to suppress her presence in the Force and her hand went down to the hilt of Gambol Shroud, ready to defend herself and run if he chose to make a move.

Instead, the man excused himself from the conversation and walked over to Blake. He bowed respectfully and introduced himself, "My name is Jaune Arc. Weiss and Ruby have asked me to personally ensure that you are safe and comfortable for the duration of your time with us." Blake only found the strength to nod at his words, her brain racing to understand what he had seen and how much he knows. He continued, a polite smile coming to his face as he introduced the rest of the group that was gathered before them, "The other Mandalorian girl is Yang Xiao Long, Ruby's sister. The Officer talking to her is Commander Pyrrha Nikos. You've already met Ruby Rose and Weiss Schnee, leaving Ren and Nora who are waiting for us on the surface. We'll leave as soon as they give the all clear," he explained. At their names, Yang nodded in Blake's direction and Pyrrha waved again and gave a polite, "Hello!" Blake nodded respectfully at each of them in turn before speaking.

"All clear with respect to what? The party of Brotherhood hunters Weiss mentioned?" She asked to no one in particular. Ruby nodded from across the room and motioned for everyone to gather around her.

"Cresh reports that a rough looking humanoid with Brotherhood livery has taken place outside the entrance to the Enclave. He seems to be planting some sort of homing device. If we're leaving, it better be now before whatever that is starts to do its job." She looked over to her sister and Weiss before continuing. "Yang, Weiss, we are going to take point here. We'll head out first and secure the old landing pad we saw attached to the courtyard. Pyrrha, I want you to follow us out and help cresh secure the shortest route from the sublevel entrance to the landing pad while Weiss gets in contact with the _Beacon_. Jaune, wait four my command and escort the package to the landing pad, suvari?" Everyone around Blake agreed and the group moved to ready themselves to move.

A moment later, after explaining the plan to the people outside, Ruby's team moved out the open door at a quick pace. A few seconds passed before Pyrrha smiled warmly at Jaune, wished him luck, and took off out the door herself. With everyone gone, Jaune turned to face Blake, his polite smile replaced with a grim, serious look as he, again, stared past every barrier that was supposed to shield her true nature from others.

"I don't know what you are, but I'm confident you aren't a good person. Nor do I believe that you are anywhere near as incompetent as Ruby and Weiss believe you to be." Blake opened her mouth to protest but he cut her off by holding his hand up, "I can see the dark side in you, and not in passive. You're using it to hide yourself from the others. The blade on your hip has the markings of the Massassi. You have been trained in the ways of the dark side, and I would have no qualms cutting you down like the abomination you are if I didn't also feel your remorse. Whatever you did, you regret it. I can feel that it haunts you day and night, I can see the bags under your eyes from restless nights. Know, Sith, that this is the only reason I allow you to live."

Blake was shocked at the sudden severity that came over the young Jedi's features, replacing what had been a warm – if not forced – smile with a unnervingly neutral line. Her hand had fallen to her weapon when he mentioned it, and she had considered catching him off guard before he started talking about her regretting her actions.

"I…I don't know what to say," were the only words to breach the silence his words had created.

"Say nothing. I'll continue acting like I don't know what hides beneath the barriers you've put up, and I won't mention this to anyone else before we're on the ship. I promised to protect you, and I still plan to." His expression softened a little before continuing, his voice returning to the inviting tone it had been when he introduced himself, "I think you can be saved, girl. I suggest you prove me right."

Silence returned to the room when he finished talking. He turned around and sat crosslegged in front of the fountain, waiting for Ruby's command. Blake simply stood, stunned. Nothing in her life before now had prepared her for his words, nor his kindness. She had spent so much of her life in constant competition – her training as a Sith assassin getting her used to the notion of success or death. She had been trained to fake kindness as a means to an end, but had never experienced a great deal of genuine kindness before. It was seen as weakness, something to be purged, yet, here it was. From someone that considered her an enemy, no less!

Blake was thrown out of her thoughts by the sound of an explosion from above them. Over Jaune's commlink, Blake could hear frantic voices reporting an orbital bombardment. Jaune's eyes flashed open. He stood up, took her hand, and led her out the door and up the stairs, his lightsaber hissing as the blade came to life.

When they reached the surface Blake's senses were again thrown into overload, vision blurring and hearing cutting out in response to the extreme amount of new stimulus. The first thing to come back was the flickering of fire, and then the roar of untamed flames. The grasslands of Dantooine were burning around them.


	8. Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

Ruby set a rather quick pace as soon as they were up the steps to Dantooine's surface. The path south was fairly flat, the paving surprisingly intact for ruins that were thousands of years old. Weiss was matching Ruby step for step, trailing slightly behind the Mandalorian woman with Yang behind her, moving backwards with surprising speed, Ember Celica at the ready.

As the trio moved to the entrance to the Enclave proper, Weiss felt… off. She wasn't sure why she felt off, she just had a bad feeling. That was fine, normal even, for most people; bad feelings were a common byproduct of galactic life. Paranoia tended to be justified when somewhere, someone – or something – was always out to get you. Weiss, however, was not 'most people.' Jedi from the Coruscanti order were raised to listen and trust their feelings as soon as they arrived to the Temple as younglings. Weiss' feelings were manifestations of her connection with the living Force, so when _she_ got a bad feeling…well…bad things were likely to happen.

Ruby's voice over the comlink brought Weiss back to reality. "Cresh, we're almost through the Enclave's ground floor. Do you still have eyes on the Sith?"

"Affirmative, aurek, he's moved to the landing pad you three are headed towards. Right now he's in the process of setting up his final homing device. Nora picked one up off the ground, she's tinkering with it now."

"Good instincts, keep me updated. We'll take care of the ge'hutuun on the landing pad, you two meet up with Pyrrha like we discussed, keep this path clear."

"Roger, aurek, moving."

A blur on the edge of Weiss' vision made her lightsaber jump into her hand and activate, her eyes immediately scanning the direction the blur had been moving. A few moments later, another blur caught her attention, this one moving slow enough for Weiss to identify. It was green and fluid, moving begrudgingly in the same direction of the first blur. The pieces clicked in Weiss' head: Ren and Nora were sprinting north along the top of the Enclave. 'Reckless fools.'

Weiss calmed down, letting her lightsaber deactivate and noticed that neither Ruby nor Yang were still next to her. While Weiss had stood in the middle of the path looking at Ren and Nora, Ruby and Yang had sprinted to the cover of the Enclave's entrance. When Weiss put her lightsaber back on her belt, Yang's voice came though the comlink, the constant chipper attitude absent from her voice.

"Tion'mhi utrel'a, Ice Queen?"

Weiss started to jog to her teammates while trying to comprehend if Yang had been speaking Basic to her or not. Before she could ask, Ruby cut in.

"Are we clear? Yang should know better than to ask questions in Mando'a"

"I see. Yes, it was a false alarm – Ren and Nora."

Weiss slowed to walk up to the pair now standing out of cover. She arrived in time to see Yang put a grenade back into the bandolier slung over her armor with one hand while making wide sweeping motions with Ember Celica in the other.

"I figured as much, we just weren't sure if you had some sort of danger sense or something"

"I'm sorry I startled you, I'm just a little jumpy. I've got this sense of…" she thought for a moment before settling on the right word, "…foreboding. Something bad is about to happen, I'm sure of it."

Pyrrha's voice cut Ruby or Yang from probing further, "Nikos here. I've rendezvoused with cresh. We're taking position above the path. Be advised, Nora has set some traps along the path."

"Roger. Get that besh?" Ruby answered. It was a little odd, hearing Ruby talk in the same strict, militaristic style as Pyrrha. Weiss couldn't be certain, but Ruby felt younger than the rest of them by a few years. Without her helmet, she could almost pass as an academy student. _Almost._

"Yup, thanks for the heads up." Jaune's tone was odd too, but for different reasons than Ruby's. The same carefree easygoing attitude Weiss had gotten used to over the past year was there, but it sounded forced. She didn't have the time to dwell on it, however, so she pushed it to the back of her mind and looked at where she thought Ruby's eyes were likely located.

"I'll contact _Beacon_ with our coordinates, we should press on and secure the landing pad as planned."

"Took the words right out of my mouth, Weiss. Yg, takean point," she gestured with the end of her rifle, "Weiss watch our six while you talk to _Beacon_. No surprises, suvari?"

"I thought we weren't supposed to speak Mando'a in front of the aruetii!" Yang teased, her voice back to normal.

"No surprises, understand?" Ruby repeated to me, stressing the last word. Weiss made sure to catalog the apparent translation before nodding and opening the _Beacon's_ com frequency.

"Salutations! Are you ready to be picked up, Weiss?"

"Shortly, Penny. We're about to clear the landing pad, do you have my location?"

"It's coming in now! We'll be on our way!"

"Thank you, Penny. I'll keep you on our channel, if nobody minds?" Weiss turned around to face Ruby, who gestured that it was fine.

"Sensational!"

Before long, the trio was standing in front of a ramp leading up and out on the far west side of the complex. Ruby turned to Weiss and lifted a finger to where her lips were beneath her helmet. Her voice came through the comlink bead in her ear. "Keep quiet, I'll head up and take him out quietly. You stay here with Yang and hold this entrance."

Weiss nodded at her new orders and turned to face the courtyard behind them. For someone wearing heavy armor, Ruby was extremely agile, unnaturally fast, and uncomfortably quiet. When Weiss turned around to see if Ruby was going to do what she said, she was surprised to see Yang leaning against the wall with Ruby nowhere in sight. Weiss had hardly gotten over her surprise before Pyrrha's voice came on over the comlink again, panic seeping through her voice. She talked fast.

"Nora finished tinkering with the homing device the Sith was planting. She didn't tell us what it was, but is practically sprinting for cover while carrying Ren. Find cover now."

Weiss' feeling of impending danger changed to one of immediate danger. Very immediate danger. Time seemed to slow down as she saw Ruby running down the ramp at a dead sprint towards them shouting into her comlink.

"Yang! Cover Weiss, now!"

Before Weiss could react, Yang threw her to the ground, shoving her into the corner of the doorway and tossing Ember Celica on top of her before supporting herself above Weiss and the _heavy_ blaster. Weiss could see Ruby dive in a similar manner for the other corner before the ceiling started to shake. In her combead, Weiss heard Ruby continue to calmly snap commands to the rest of the group.

" _Beacon,_ be advised, we are currently the target of orbital bombardment. Do you have eyes?

"There seems to be a Sith frigate sending multiple landing craft to your location as well as firing multiple canons at the surface of the planet. Trajectory of the craft indicates they are most likely heading to the same position as the bombardment."

"Our position, right!?"

"Affirmative, Ruby! I have alerted Masters Goodwitch and Oobleck, they are currently rushing to the cockpit!"

"Roger _Beacon_. Cresh, sitrep!"

A piece of stone the size of Weiss' torso fell in front of them, dust and dirt thrown into the air with the impact. To her credit, Yang didn't move an inch.

"We're under cover, Nora seems to think it's safe. She's trying to explain what's happening to me but…"

"Put her on. Weiss or Jaune, I want a translation."

Some scuffling sounds from the other end were cut off by a bubbly voice trying its best to talk at 100 words per second.

"Right, so I was taking apart one of those weird homing disks the soldier guy was leaving around, but you already knew that, Pyrrha told you earlier. Anyway, I was taking it apart and I found a port that I could plug my datapad into so I naturally got all excited to see what exactly was going on so I could help, plus it was getting super boring just standing there watching some guy in dark green armor – or is it grey? Maybe it's like, a dark grey-een?" Someone must have done something to get her back on track, at the end of that sentence, because she went back to talking about the homing device. "Anyway, after I cracked through the encryption and got into it, it started looking really bad. I didn't have a lot of guesses, but it looked an awful lot like the code I use for some of my remote explosives so I thought, 'Hey, if they were me, I would use this kind of thing to override the targeting computers on a ship to more accurately bomb a planet with turbolasers,' and then I looked some more and that was **exactly** what it was! I almost got to brag to Ren before I noticed the lights changing and the code activating, so I threw the disk away, picked up Ren and ran to the sturdiest place I remember climbing around earlier, not earlier today, earlier when Ren and I were exploring this place last week together – well, not together, together – you know what I…" Nora's voice started getting softer and softer as someone took the comlink away from her and Weiss made a face while summing up in her head what she'd heard Nora say. Behind her, just shy of hitting her feet, Weiss felt what was likely a literal ton of rock and gravel fall to the ground, blocking their exit to the landing pad.

"The Sith soldier was planting those homing devices to enable their ship to bombard these exact coordinates."

"Nora's nodding her head in affirmation," Pyrrha informed the group.

"Good, thank you Weiss. _Beacon_ , you mentioned landing craft?"

"Yes, that is what appears to be moving to your position right now." Weiss would never admit it to anyone else, but the sound of her Master's voice eased her nerves significantly. She let out a breath she didn't know she was holding and felt the weight of Ember Celica push down on her a little harder for it.

"Do you think it's likely they'll stop firing when the craft are in range?"

"I do, yes."

"That's what we'll count on, then. _Beacon_ , let me know the minute the last bolt leaves that frigate. Cresh, when that happens move closer to the entrance to the sublevel, join up with besh the minute I tell them to move. The landing pad behind us is inaccessible, we'll need a new LZ. Maps of the area and what we saw this morning suggest the clearing a few klicks west from here is ideal, there's some old stonework that we can use for cover while we wait for extraction. We'll move as a single group this time. _Beacon,_ are you in a position to intercept some of the landing craft?"

"Yes, but I should warn you that this is not a warship, we've only got a few armaments. If the landing zone is too hot, we will not be able to extract you without risking the ship."

There was a pause as Ruby took the new information in. Yang spoke up, her voice once again lacking the jollity that Weiss was used to. "We could summon _Patch_. Zwei can pilot her to our location, her shields should take most of the pain before we can get aboard and actually start firing back."

"Good, make the arrangements. Everyone catch that? We'll bang out aboard _Patch_ , can anyone but Yang handle a gun well?"

"Ren says he has experience"

"It's settled."

"Ruby, the ship has stopped firing. We're moving to intercept the landing craft now."

"Roger, everyone, Go! Go! Go!"

Yang was off Weiss in a second, another second had her repeater in her hands. She pulled Weiss to her feet and took point, sprinting the way they'd come from. Ruby and Weiss followed behind as quickly as they could, intuitively making a 'v' formation as the girls raced through the courtyard and the ruinous hallways. Every few steps they would have to jump or skip to avoid a piles of rubble.

The trio almost made it out without any real trouble before they got to the final hallway. The path was blocked by three large stone pieces of the ceiling. Yang tapped three times in the center, motioned for the rest of the group to stand behind something, and dropped a few grenades in front of her before springing to cover.

Ruby stood in front of Weiss, likely planning on shielding her with her armored body. It was a smart decision on her part, as the very split second the grenades blew a head-sized chunk of permacrete flew into Ruby's torso, which, in turn, threw Ruby into Weiss. Both women lost their footing and we were thrown to the ground.

Weiss found her feet quickly and pulled Ruby up. "Are you okay?!" Weiss shouted, perhaps too loudly. She couldn't tell, as her ears were ringing from the explosions. Ruby nodded before shoving Weiss gently toward the smoke at the end of the hallway. Yang was already sprinting again, running through the smoke as if she could see it was clear.

Weiss followed carefully and was surprised to see how well Yang's improvised solution had worked. A hole big enough for someone to squeeze through had been blasted into the rubble. Beyond the obstruction was light – the outside.

Running outside, the first thing Weiss noticed was the smoke. Black smoke blotted out the sun and moons that hung in Dantooine's sky, rising from the grasslands around them that were burning uncontrolled. Her ears were still ringing, but she was sure she could hear blaster bolts in the distance.

Pyrrha came over the comlink, her voice was difficult to hear over the sounds of battle. "We have contact! Jaune, protect the package! Nora, fire some grenades through the fire to the west where those bolts came from!"

"Acknowledged, Pyrrha. We'll attempt to flank from the south!" Ruby had yet to lose her calm demeanor, something that came as a surprise to Weiss who could feel hers slipping away as she gripped her lightsaber more tightly. 'Strange…I don't even remember calling it to my hand.'

"Roger. Nora, don't bomb the southern soldiers, just the northwest!"

"Yang, off the path twenty paces west. Then we run north until we find the enemy. Weiss, can you handle running through fire?"

Weiss' confidence was failing her. "I…uh…"

Ruby grabbed Weiss by the shoulders, yanking her head to stare eye-to-eye slit.

"Weiss. Take a deep breath and think for a moment. Can you deal with running through fire? Does the force protect you or something?"

"…Not usually, but for some reason I tend to…" Ruby cut her off.

"Focus. Yes or no, Weiss."

Weiss breathed deeply, fighting the urge to cough as the smoke filled her lungs. "Yes, yes I can handle fire."

"Good girl. Follow close. Yang, move!"

Ruby shoved her again, this time a little harder towards Yang. Weiss gathered her nerves, took another deep breath, and ran after the Mandalorians into the burning fields of Dantooine.

 **For this chapter, I figured the soldiering types (everyone but Weiss, Jaune, and Blake in this case) would have the good sense to obey the unspoken commands of an explosives expert, so if that was at all unclear, I'm terribly sorry. Next week I'm likely going to do it in more of a first person thing, so heads up for the style change in the middle of things. Thanks for reading!**


	9. Chapter Eight

**Hello, readers. Like I mentioned at the end of last chapter, I wanted to try doing some first person perspective stuff right here, it could very well be a huge mistake and I hope you tell me if you hate it. Or if you love it. Or if you're completely ambivalent to any of these changes. If the response if negative, consider next chapter business as usual for Trials. Heck, I'll even edit the first person out of this one! Also, there's a short glossary at the bottom for the bit of the chapter that's got Ruby and Yang talking to each other, so hopefully that's helpful. Enjoy!**

* * *

 **Chapter Eight**

* * *

"We have contact! Jaune, protect the package! Nora, fire some grenades through the fire to the west where those bolts came from!" The commander – Pyrrha – seemed to be in her element. Sure, I'd been in my share of firefights; the life of a vagabond led Nora and I into many distasteful situations where the only solution had been to draw my blasters and send a volley toward the problem. This, however, was a little more involved than a tussle with a few spaceport thugs that thought to take a pass at my friend. These were Sith soldiers, feared by every sentient creature in the outer rims.

"Acknowledged, Pyrrha. We'll attempt to flank from the south!" If Pyrrha was in her element, Ruby was in her isotope. Like every other Mandalorian I've encountered in my travels, she and her sister Yang live and breathe conflict.

"Roger. Nora, don't bomb the southern soldiers, just the northwest"

My partner let out a laugh and did as instructed, sending a full belt of eight grenades to the northwest. She was handling this situation the same way I'd seen her handle every other stressful situation we'd ever encountered; with a spring in her step and a giggle in her throat. Most people just assumed she didn't get scared, but after fifteen years together, I knew better. I saw the looks in my direction, scanning my face for any sign of alarm or fear, desperate for reassurance that things were going to be alright. I _never_ failed to show her anything to make her think I was anything but calm. I wouldn't forgive myself for knowingly scaring Nora like that.

I was beginning to worry that my inexperience was preventing me from responding to this situation in the proper way, so I turned to the commander and, ensuring my voice was as even and respectful as usual, shouted: "Pyrrha, where do you need me?"

"Right now? You're doing fine. At this range we both know your pistols are useless, just wait and cover Nora when the Sith get closer, you two are doing famously!" I nodded and moved closer to Nora. If my orders were to protect Nora, something that I would do anyway, then I would happily devote my entire attention to doing so.

"Nora, maybe you should be a little more conservative unless the commander tells us otherwise. I think we may be at this for a little longer than we're used to."

"Alright, Ren!" She sang back, limiting herself to sending only four grenades in the general direction of the incoming blasterfire from the west.

"Pyrrha, the four soldiers directly west of us are charging our position." The other Jedi, Jaune, and the black haired girl Ruby's group had been looking for were standing out of cover, presenting a clear target for a few snipers and more than a few indiscriminate blaster bolts, but I had yet to see a single shot get past him. I considered myself graceful, fluid even, but I couldn't help but feel completely outclassed by the man. The only thing that told me he was still mortal was the look on his face. The same kind of look Nora had on her face whenever she was under duress, except instead of jollity and naïveté hiding fear and panic, he was hiding something else behind his goofy smile. Something that forced his eyes to look decades older than he really was.

"I assume you can sense them? Does that extend to the rest of the soldiers?"

"Uh, yeah. I can sense them, I mean. Weiss' team is keeping the five men to the southwest busy and Nora has the remaining soldiers in the northwest pinned."

"That's extremely helpful, thank you Jaune!" She smiled in his direction before continuing: "Ren, I'll need you to help me lay down a suppressing fire every time Nora is ready to send another barrage to the northwest, we need to keep them pinned until we're ready to deal with them." I nodded to her at my orders, I could do that. "Jaune, I know you've been ordered to keep Blake safe at all costs, but I need you more in an offensive capability."

"Uh…I don't know Pyrrha…"

The black haired girl, Blake I guess, nudged him and said something under her breath.

"Fine, we'll go take care of the soldiers. You focus on keeping the soldiers to the northwest pinned, I'll com when it's safe to advance."

Before Pyrrha could respond, Jaune and Blake were running into the blaster fire, Jaune leading the charge and batting away a majority of the blasterfire with his lightsaber while Blake trailed directly behind him…or was she directly next to him? I was having a hard time keeping her in focus, she kept disappearing from my vision only to reappear somewhere else. Maybe it was just the smoke from the fires surrounding me messing with my brain. I _hoped_ it was just the smoke messing with my brain.

"Ready!" Nora's sing-song voice tuned two syllables into a full three second affair. I smiled at her and sprang above cover, letting the blaster pistols in both hands send bolt after bolt to the west, careful not to aim in the direction Jaune and Blake had been going. A few feet to my right, Pyrrha was doing the same thing. To my left, Nora was spreading a belt of grenades around to the northwest, letting her smile disappear while she thought my attention was focused somewhere else, replaced with a tightly drawn line and a furrowed brow.

When the eighth grenade left the barrel of her launcher, she ducked down into cover; an action Pyrrha and I quickly mimicked after sending a few more shots downrange. The second we took cover again, blaster bolts resumed their previous volume. Nora began to reload, removing the spent belt of grenades from her launcher and replacing it with a fresh one from her bandolier. She would soon start needing the belts I carried on my person at the rate she was going.

When she reloaded, it was much the same procedure. The three of us soon got into a rhythm: pop up, shoot into the fire to let Nora send eight grenades to the northwest, take cover again for about thirty seconds while I hand Nora a fresh belt, then repeat. The blasterfire began getting more accurate with every cycle, and by the third I could make out the silhouettes of two Sith. I assumed that the remaining two were busy with Jaune, but before I could pull the trigger with one of the Sith in the sights of my left pistol, he collapsed, a shadowy figure shimmering for a split second behind him. When I moved to target the second Sith, Jaune's golden yellow lightsaber flew into her chest, then flew back where it had come. Another second passed while Nora finished firing grenades and the comlink buzzed with activity again.

"All teams, we've taken care of the four soldiers in the middle."

"And the soldiers to the southwest are similarly indisposed."

"Excellent work, Ren, Nora and I will make our way to finish off the stragglers in the northwest and meet the rest of you at…" Pyrrha paused as she looked down at her datapad, no doubt examining a map of the area, "the following coordinates. It should be pretty close to the middle."

"Wait, 'we' wasn't referring to the whole of the second team?" Weiss's voice carried a slightly shrill quality that I didn't exactly love, her tone betraying her high opinion of herself. I thought Jedi were supposed to be more like Jaune – modest and slow to violence – but the limited interactions I'd had with Weiss showed her to be, well, slightly off the mark for both counts.

"Negative, aurek. Besh pushed the assault due west so we could keep the northwest pinned with grenades."

Pyrrha's response seemed to break something in Ruby's demeanor, as she yelled her response in her helmet with the same tone I'd heard instructors use in military holovids. "You sent the package into the middle of a firefight? Which of you di'kuts came up with that idea?"

"It was…uhm…" The final word of the sentence was barely audible as Jaune responded, clearly not used to being called a di'kut, whatever that was. I assumed it was most likely something insulting.

"He went out on my orders, aurek. I believed he was more than capable of protecting the package while pressing the offensive."

"Yell at them later, vod, _Patch_ is off the ground and about two minutes away."

The com went silent for a moment before Ruby gave us our new orders, "All teams, move to besh's position. We'll mop up the stragglers and push for the RV."

"We'll hold the fort, I guess," I could practically _hear_ Jaune shrugging meekly.

"Roger, aurek. Moving to position." Pyrrha sprang up, checking to ensure no blasterfire would come through the burning grassland before motioning us to follow.

The moment we were out of cover, Pyrrha began to run. It wasn't an all-out sprint, more like a brisk jog, but it was clear that we were meant to keep pace. I chuckled a little to myself as we ran around craters and patches of burning grass. This morning, Nora and I were going to do a little exploring, test out her new explosive mix, maybe we'd even find some old trinkets generations of looters had missed behind thick rubble or, as Nora insisted, secret doors. I doubted we'd find anything of value, but it was something to do. Something that made Nora happy.

Instead, we found ourselves wrapped up in some high priority Republic operation where two Jedi and a Republic officer took orders from a pair of young Mandalorian mercenaries; running through a burning grassland riddled with craters with Nora's extra grenade belts and a few of her demo charges slung in belts and bandoliers underneath my coat. Despite the fear and anxiety behind Nora's cheerful facade, I knew that after things calmed down she would consider this to be the most fun we'd had for a very long time. I didn't doubt that she'd try to join Ruby and Yang on future adventures, so I guess I should get used to this sort of thing.

* * *

"He went out on my orders, aurek. I believed he was more than capable of protecting the package while pressing the offensive."

"Yell at them later, vod, _Patch_ is off the ground and about two minutes away."

I don't remember the last time I had gotten this angry at something. After Pyrrha spoke up in defense of that di'kut and brought up the kedin _I'd_ established, I muted myself to everyone but Yang and stopped holding back all of my frustration. "I really should just hit that di'kut jetii. What was he thinking, taking the package into the center of a battlefield?! Kaysh mirsh solus!"

"Woah! Udesii, Rub'ika!" She threw her hands up toward me, palms out. I knew she was talking sense to me. I knew I should calm down, reassess the situation, and move forward. "What happened to no mando'a at the aruetiise?"

"I'm not _talking_ to an aruetiise, unless you've gone traitor?" I knew my emotions had gotten the better of my tongue when my sister's voice carried no trace of her usual warmth. I shouldn't have even joked about that.

"Copaani mirshmure'cye, vod?"

"Ni ceta, vod." _I kneel, sister._ Normally, a person would apologize with a simple 'sorry,' but I needed to grovel; after all, it was a serious insult to Yang, intentional or not. I let my regret seep into my voice and she returned to her usual, cheerful self. Sure my sister was famous for holding grudges, when Summer died at the hands of the Sith she didn't waste a night before painting over the original orange of her beskar'gam with gold – choosing vengeance over simply living life, but she'd never been able to hold a grudge with me, nor I her. An appropriate apology would almost always make whatever I'd done to insult her fade away, as it did here.

"Use your head, Rub'ika. Pyrrha is an al'verde. _A commander._ She knows what she's doing."

"But she's not the one who loses payment _and_ our lead if the package dies."

"That Jaune kid seems capable. Just, take a deep breath and stop buying time."

I followed her advice, taking a deep breath and took myself off mute to the rest of our group. "All teams, move to besh's position. We'll mop up the stragglers and push for the RV."

"We'll hold the fort, I guess," I could practically _hear_ Jaune shrugging meekly.

"Roger, aurek. Moving to position."

"I take it you two had a nice little chat?" My helmet's microphone patched Weiss' voice in, she was staring at Yang and I with her arms crossed. "I didn't think you'd had so little faith in Jaune's abilities. I already told you, he's well suited to deal with blasterfire." How did she…can she read minds? I thought I'd heard that Jetii could do that from someone…was it Yang? I cocked my head and started to speak before she answered my question before I could say it.

"I didn't have to read your mind, after Jaune mentioned he'd run in to take care of Sith soldiers with Blake, you cut out of the frequency and waved hands at each other." I noted that Weiss hadn't said she _couldn't_ read our minds, but decided to wait for another time to press the issue. Right now it was time to get to Jaune and Blake as quickly as possible before more Sith showed up and killed our objective. Though, she _did_ have a sword strapped to her hip. Maybe she wasn't just some neverd who got in too deep.

"Ruby and I did, in fact, have a little chat about tall, blonde, and scraggly's tactical decisions, but managed to reach a consensus. Now, we have a bit of a timetable to operate on; our ship is currently about two minutes away and I would like to get aboard it before the Sith have a chance to blow it up." Yang pointed in the general direction Jaune's combead had transmitted from with Ember Celica and started marching.

After meeting with the others, I noticed that Blake had, in fact, had a sword at her hip. It was a really cool sword too! I couldn't see the blade, but its sheath looked really old in some parts. I could see a thin trigger along the hilt which was bigger than you'd expect a blade that size to need. I was confident that it hid some sort of blaster, maybe more than one! Once we got on the ship I had to ask her to see it! Maybe she'd had the decency to give it a name!

Nobody really bothered talking while we walked toward the coordinates Yang had sent our astromech, every set of eyes was scanning the horizon for signs of trouble. That may have been why I walked strait into the carcass of a Kath hound, kicking some of its blood onto Weiss.

To her credit, she did not scream at me like I thought she would. She simply wiped it off, took a deep breath, and asked a question in the most terrifyingly calm voice I'd ever heard, "Why in the world did you think it was necessary to add beast blood to my already ruined robes?"

I rushed an apology, "I'm sorry! I was making sure nothing was sneaking up on us while keeping an eye half a kilometer up on that ridge where I think a sniper would set up shop and I guess I just kinda…didn't see it?"

"You're not the only one, vod," Yang put a hand on my shoulder to get my attention and pointed at another dead Kath hound.

"There's a few over here too, fresh by the looks of them," Ren called out from a few meters away.

Pyrrha looked concerned, "What killed them?"

"I'd say Sith, but we passed their landing craft a minute ago," Jaune answered, his dominate hand resting on the hilt of his lightsaber while his left hand stroked his chin thoughtfully.

I knelt down to examine the carcass I'd stomped on – apart from the boot print that had split the beast's chest cavity open, I couldn't see any blaster wounds; the animal just looked sick.

I stood back up and reached a conclusion. "Must have been some kind of disease, nobody touch them any more than you have to. Let's just keep moving, anyone not wearing beskar'gam will need to go through a round of decontamination when we get onto _patch_ , got it?" Every member of the group nodded at my instructions and set off. Well, every member except Blake. She just stared at the closest Kath hound for a few seconds before gripping the hilt of her sword and falling in step directly behind Jaune, her head on a pivot while she scanned the area. I gripped Crescent Rose a little tighter, the switch to deploy the scythe well within reach of my trigger finger. She knew something, I was sure of it, and if she was worried, I would be too.

My intuition proved unfortunately right. As soon as the group passed over some invisible barrier, the dead Kath hounds began to move.

"Everyone, stay calm, and get a shot lined up." I whispered into the microphone in my helmet. The response was pretty immediate, everyone in the group, save Blake, readied some form of ranged attack. The Jetii activated their lightsabers, Yang hefted Ember Celica, and Ren held both pistols at ready. Pyrrha went to one knee and raised her rifle to her shoulder, and Nora…well as far as I could tell Nora just pointed her grenade launcher in the general direction of a few Kath hounds.

The diseased beasts started rising to their feet. Their fur fell off in places, revealing skin that looked like it had been dyed back. Bones pierced out from a few of their backs, and their eyes started to change a bloody red as they slowly surrounded us.

In my peripheral, I saw something strange – Blake's head had snapped to a direction I hadn't seen hounds rise from. I followed her gaze and saw…nothing. I almost moved back to the sickly beasts that were moving to make us into their dinner, but then she cocked her head and drew her sword.

From thin air, a figure walked into the open. He wore simple black armor, the emblem of the Brotherhood of Darkness emblazoned on his breastplate. He took another step and everyone but the Jetii shifted their gaze, and aim, to him. With another step, he pulled his hood from his head, revealing dark skin and horns. His face was tattooed with various blotches of white and red forming the general shape of a mask around his yellow eyes. In another step he drew his sword, the material of the blade similar to Blakes.

The Jetii seemed oblivious to his presence until he spoke, despite being less than five meters away from them, but when he finally opened his mouth, his eyes were locked with Blake's.

"Blake. You really should have said goodbye before running off like that."

* * *

 **Mando'a Glossary**

di'kut - idiot, useless person

vod - brother / sister , comrade

jetii - Jedi

Kaysh mirsh solus - he's an idiot (literally translated, it's 'his braincell is lonely')

Udesii - calm down

aruetisse - outsider, foreigner, traitor

copaani mirshmure'cye, vod? - you lookin' for a smack in the face, mate?

neverd - civilian


	10. Interlude One

**Interlude One**

* * *

The evening mist fell slowly over the forested pass, enveloping my vision in red. I often cursed the enhancements the academy had seen fit to force upon me when they discovered my particular talents, but in this moment I gave a silent thanks to the Sith Lords who had so clearly seen the necessity of such an act.

"Are you fit to continue, or will we have to postpone?" My mentor, Adam, allowed sarcasm to bleed through his tone as he waited crouched beside me. It was impossible to postpone a task assigned to us by any one of the numerous Lords of the Brotherhood of Darkness; doubly so if the Sith in question was as respected amongst the upper echelon of the Brotherhood as our current benefactor was. Even if the thick mist had left me blind, deaf, or otherwise incapacitated, we were expected to find a way to complete our task. We did not live with defeat.

"I'm fine." I gripped Gambol Shroud at my waist to emphasize my point, finger subconsciously stopping before tripping the hairline trigger built into her hilt. He only nodded before turning his head away and focusing to the North.

I passed the time as I had learned to pass the time in the academy: quietly and without moving a muscle. Briefly, I listened to my surroundings to find some way to change my mental routine, settling on the chirps of nearby birds.

 _One, cresh._

 _Two, aurek._

 _Three and Four, esk._

 _Five, grek._

It wasn't long before I was predicting the next chirp and its corresponding pitch in the conversation taking place throughout the canopy, and after a minute of getting used to the new patterns, my mind began predicting the notes of the bird song in the background, replacing my previous pattern of continuously counting pazzak cards.

Feeling confident that my routine would sufficiently hide me, I began to turn my thoughts to my kit before Adam spoke again.

"Get ready, the train is approaching."

Together, we made our way through the mist to the lip of the cliff and prepared to jump onto the speeding train.

"Are you going to tell me what our task is now?"

"I already told you, routine hit. Jedi knight and any apprentices he has with him."

I knew better than to press the issue with Adam. Our superiors had chosen to keep specific information regarding a task from me before, and although I often did not understand their reasoning, I trusted in their wisdom as I had been trained to do for a decade.

"Thirty seconds."

I reached out to the Force to cloak myself as I felt Adam do the same beside me. There were many differences in the style and method the two of us used to conceal our presence, but the end result was the same. We would be much harder for the Jedi to spot, let alone fight. This was, after all, our purpose in this galaxy.

"Ten seconds."

Adam's voice was distorted by his cloak of darkness. He was invisible to most senses, using the Force to bend the light around him. Combined with our reflexive ability to hide our presence in the force, only those with extremely sharp senses and beings that could filter their vision through frequencies he was silhouetted in would be able to detect him at all.

"I'm ready. I shall follow." My voice was changed as well. It seemed to come out of multiple shimmers; all taking my shape, and all constantly moving in and out of the shadows.

"I lead. We move as one."

With that, Adam and I leapt toward the empty tracks, reaching out to the Force to send us both flying far further than conventionally possible. Just as we began to descend, a silver blur appeared and we touched down silently on top of the fast moving train.

A twitch down Adam's frame and we began running down the length of the train. The wind continually threatened to blow me off the top of the train, but I would not allow it. For the third time today, I called to the Force and pushed myself down with enough continual force to prevent the wind from robbing me of my footing.

After we traveled down five cars, Adam motioned for us to stop and crouch over an access port. It was likely locked, but a subtle wave of Adam's hand had it falling open for us. As one, we drew our blades and dropped into the cabin below.

The first fell by my blade, a simply dressed aqualish who had been sorting cargo. He hadn't even noticed our presence before his head was cleanly removed from his torso. Adam moved at the same time as I did, catching both the head and the body before they would make enough noise to alert the passengers of the train to our presence.

Adam pointed to the door to the rear of the car before moving to the front and slipping out the door. I moved without hesitation toward the back door. It was unlocked, and after passing through the gap between the cars, I crouched before the door to the next car. Although I could feel it was unlocked, I took a moment to reach out through the Force to identify the force sensitives on the other side of the door. There were two. My targets.

In one motion, I was through the door. I a fraction of a second, I had the layout of the cabin. It was small, separated into separate rooms by glazed transparasteel. The two force sensitives were sitting down, facing each other. One, a twi'lek male, had his eyes open; likely a result of my entrance. The other, a young bothan female, had yet to react.

Before the bothan could move, I used the assassin's pistol built into Gambol Shroud to blast a hole in her back. She fell face forward, limp. The twi'lek had jumped to his feet, his lightsaber in his hand. Curiously, he did not charge at me, nor did he use the Force to push me back or pull me forward. The Jedi raised his free hand to lock the transparasteel door of the wall and moved in front of it, his saber raised in a guard.

"You will not succeed here, Sith. Surrender." His voice betrayed his fear. We both knew he would fall here, his words were for the benefit of those behind the wall. I could already see movement through the blurred glass, twelve blades of light appearing of various colors. I took a moment to reach again through the Force and felt them – they were barely there, untrained and unskilled compared to even the weakest Jedi Knight. Thirteen shadows in the Force.

I charged the Jedi guarding the door, waiting until the very last moment to feint back slightly and allow his counterstrike to pass through a shadowy clone before pressing in closer. My movement was fluid and unnatural, honed to perfection after years of practice. A single maneuver had placed me within his guard, and a single twitch sent my blade through his heart. It had been quick. Easy. The Jedi deserved his fate if this had been all the fight he had in him.

I spun to his side as I pulled my blade from his chest, letting his body collapse to the floor. A step placed me before what had once been a door. Now, a single pane of transparasteel stood before me. Whatever the Jedi had done to lock the door, it had certainly done its job. For a moment, I considered that his failure may not have been complete, but those thoughts vanished as I reached again for the Force and pushed.

A blast of force shattered the thin transparasteel wall, revealing the thirteen Force sensitives that I had overlooked on my first search. Thirteen young, scared faces looked up at me as I advanced through the glass.

I paused for the first time in…well…I couldn't remember a time before then. Before this moment, I had always followed orders without question, as was expected of me as an assassin. Here and now, however, I wanted to stop. I wanted to turn around and tell Adam that I'd completed our task.

The oldest stood as tall as she could before me, both hands gripping her training saber in a basic guard.

"Please, let us be! We're just kids!"

" _You're_ just targets." Adam's disembodied voice came from behind me and my reflexes kicked in as I surrendered to my training.

I killed them all.

I _murdered_ them all.

They didn't put up a fight.

That only made it worse.


	11. Chapter Nine

**Sorry for the brief hiatus, didn't mean for it to happen at all! For missing three weeks, I plan on catching up a bit in the coming week or so; hopefully we'll catch back up where I want to be by the time University starts back up!**

* * *

 **Chapter Nine**

* * *

"Blake. You really should have said goodbye before running off like that."

A variety of profanities in a variety of languages left my mouth as a quiet breath. She had sent him after me alongside her favored adapts. I considered simply running before remembering that he'd been the one to hone my skills – I couldn't hide from him.

"If you turn back now, neither you nor your pets will be harmed. We will take you into custody where you will face a fair trial." Pyrrha spoke well, comfortable both in the authority she wielded as a commander in the Republic military and knowing full well that assassins didn't surrender. From my spot in the back, I saw everyone prepare for battle.

Directly in front of me, Jaune's golden saber was held above his head, ready for an attack from any direction, but both he and Weiss were blind to his presence. Around me, the others took their own defensive stances – save Yang and Nora who seemed to lack any sort of true defensive stance.

"I counter your offer with one of my own. Blake, the woman before you is a defector. A monster who lacks all traces of honor. I offer her life for yours, Jedi." Adam's eyes never left mine, his words were very clearly meant for me. He'd known I ran away because I felt burdened by some of the blood I'd shed. He'd seen my slow walk toward thinking outside the strict doctrines taught in the Academy.

Before I could respond – blast – before I could decide between fighting or giving myself up to save the others, Yang responded, shouting "Frag that" before opening fire. After the first two bolts left her repeater, everything happened at once.

The Grimm charged the group in once motion, ignoring much of the reflex fire my allies let off in response. Adam stepped back into his cloak of darkness, likely trusting the Grimm the adapts had created for him to do the heavy lifting before engaging the survivors. It only took a second for them to break our loosely assembled line, forcing everyone that didn't have a melee weapon out to the middle with me. Pyrrha barked an order as she drew a lengthy bayonet, "Fan out!"

Her orders were obeyed immediately: the group scattered, Ruby, Yang, Jaune, and Pyrrha moving west and Ren, Nora, and Weiss moving east. What had been a relatively quiet field erupted in blasterfire and bestial snarls. I could faintly hear the Jedi as their blades cut down creatures that got too close.

I'd fought these abominations before – how else was the Dark Lady supposed to master the process, after all? These corrupted Kath hounds were significantly easier to stop than many of the other beasts she and her acolytes had used to test the various spells and chemicals needed to create a Grimm, but in force they were still nontrivial opponents; something my allies were quickly discovering for themselves.

Before I could fully prepare myself for a duel against Adam, all of my senses went haywire. In one fluid motion I dived into a dodge, feeling Adam's blade as it cut through the air where I'd been only a heartbeat ago.

I didn't even consider not surrendering to my instincts. I'd been trained to react, not to think, so without considering the consequences I pulled my cloak of shadows around myself and swung a counterattack.

Adam parried my desperate swing without a hint of effort, but it gave me the split second to regain my balance. Before he could attack again, I was in the air.

Gambol Shroud's hidden disrupter fired out of the hilt at the apex of my leap, sending a black beam of energy down toward Adam. One fluid motion allowed Adam to gracefully move out of the way of my shot and take position on the ground where I would land, blade ready to impale me.

I called out to the Force and willed my feet to find purchase on the air, pushing off of nothing to extend my jump out beyond where Adam waited. He charged forward at the same moment, pushing the offensive.

As soon as I landed, my brain began to shut down all nonessential processes. I could feel the vague orders and time frame slip away until there was only the duel. We settled into a familiar dance, the same general routine that we had started every morning with while I was under his tutelage. I swung at his legs, he jumped and aimed a thrust at my dominate arm. I dodged backwards with my blade arm while punching out with my other hand.

He was toying with me. Giving me one last chance to beat him in our drill – one last chance for the student to earn her place as the teacher's equal. The thought struck me off balance for a millisecond, but that was long enough for him to notice. With impossible speed, he swiped out diagonally, forcing me to dodge under.

It had been a trick, something I would have noticed if not for the interjection of thought. Right before he let the swing loose he twisted his grip and thrust.

His blade went right through my armor. Right through my stomach.

I could feel the toxins we coated our blades with enter my bloodstream – not to kill me but to render me immobile. I would die of blood loss. Painfully. I felt my legs give out as I fell to my knees and looked up at him, for once not bothering to hide my emotions. I wasn't mad, and I couldn't bring myself to hate Adam for what he'd done. I was simply afraid to die.

He pulled his sword out, flicking it to get rid of the blood on the blade, moving it into its sheathe in the same motion. Adam looked over me as I kneeled at his feet, his yellow eyes meeting mine.

"Disappointing."

I would have responded with something witty – I'd always thought I would have the last word before I died, but I couldn't open my mouth to speak. Instead I felt my heart, twisted and dark as it may be, shatter at his comment as he turned and walked toward my allies. I was disappointing. These people would die because of me. More innocents.

Everything went black.

* * *

"Yang, ETA on _Patch_?" my sister's voice was calm, quiet despite the immense array of noises around us. Beautiful things, buy'cese.

"Zwei made three high pitched chirps and two low pitched chirps, so I'd guess about two more minutes?"

"Understood. Everyone else hear that?"

Ruby's Crescent Rose was fully deployed next to me, cutting through any of these beasts that got inside my firing arc while Ember Celica cut through all the others around us in her own special way.

With lots of blasterbolts.

 _Lots._

Various confirmations came across the comlink, but I didn't really listen. Planning, tactics, communication and coordination? Those were Ruby's strong suit, I didn't have a mind for them and I knew it. Instead, I focused on the battle around me.

I'd always loved the battlefield – ever since my buir took me with him for my first time when I was of age. I had barely been big enough to cart around blaster clips, but when the enemy overwhelmed the line, I found a blaster and a knife pushed into my hands by one of the men around me. Buir would always tell everyone that I'd single handedly turned the tide, pushing the settlers back to their huts before ruffling my hair and smiling. That day I'd found beauty in battle; a certain peace that could only come when you were forced to your limit.

I was shaken out of my thoughts when a beast got inside my fire arc while Ruby was dealing with three others that had ganged up on her. A flick of my wrist sent a knife into the eye of the charging brute; a step to the side put me in its new blind spot; and a single punch from my gauntleted left fist sent a vibroblade through its neck. A final movement and Ember Celica was once again letting loose a torrent of blasterbolts into the thinning crowd of beasts.

"…Blake?" I snapped back into the conversation as soon as our objective's name was dropped.

"What about Blake?" I shouted into my buy'ce, probably a little more forcefully than I needed to.

"What do you mean, she isn't with you?" They seemed to ignore me, or at least, Ruby ignored me. It seemed my vod had just skipped the angry stage of learning that you'd misplaced your fracking objective and moved strait on to finding out why you'd misplaced your objective.

"No, I assumed she was still with Jaune!"

"Jaune's with us, di'kut! Why would we ask about Blake if she was with Jaune?"

Ruby found time mid stroke to shoot me a look - osik I'd forgotten about her rules about Mando'a over the comlink with aruteii. It was an annoying rule, yes, but I suppose I saw her point.

Didn't stop me from sending the next dozen blaster bolts downrange with added frustration.

"Well she's not with us, and I can't really go looking for her. Nora's…enthusiasm has attracted quite a few of these creatures. Ren and I are barely keeping them off her!"

"We'll come help, if that's alright with you two?" Pyrrha looked to Ruby for confirmation before running off with Jaune to offer support to the other group. It should have bothered me, but I saw the reasoning behind it. Nora was easily doing the most damage to this horde of beasts, and doing it loudly. She needed all the backup she could get. Plus, that left more for me over on our side.

"That doesn't answer the question of where our objecti…" I was cut off mid-sentence as I found Blake. She was kneeling on the ground on the outskirts of the battleground, the assassin's blade just barely visible with the filters Ruby and I switched to when he spoke before the beasts attacked.

I started running toward them – he'd already stabbed her through the gut. She'd bleed out in a few minutes, but she would likely go into shock before that. He was turning toward me. Good. The comlink was buzzing with activity but I pushed it to the back of my mind, not bothering to listen. This was going to be a good fight.

I opened up with Ember Celica, thanking my luck that the objective wasn't high enough to be hit by a stray bolt. The assassin would try to dodge her torrent of blasterfire, but Ember Celica was too fast. I was too good.

When the time came for him to dodge, however, he didn't. He ducked and charged me, sword still in its sheathe. It only took him a few steps to get inside my arc of fire. I changed my grip on Ember Celica, letting the anti-grav plates take more of the load than usual as I prepared to defend in melee.

He opened by shooting his sword at me. It was certainly an interesting tactic; had it not been for my beskar'gam, I would have been pushed back by the force of the blow or impaled by the point of the hilt, but instead the weapon was batted to the side. He rolled to catch it and I retaliated with my own little surprise.

As he pulled the weapon back to him, I hit him with Ember Celica, switching the anti-grav plates off at the last second to put her entire weight into the swing. It made contact and he was flung to the ground immobile. I presumed dead – That trick always left my unwitting opponents dead.

Next thing I know I was falling. The assassin had pulled my leg out from under me – not so dead after all. In one motion he was on his feet and I was kneeling off balance.

I dropped Ember Celica and blocked the swing that would likely have decapitated me with my gauntlets, the shock causing my arms to shake and protest. I looked up at the assassin to see him smiling at me. Without hesitation, my mouth spat the first thing it could come up with through my helmet speakers.

"First time a girl's been on her knees for you?" I stood carefully, picking up Ember Celica with my right hand and used the switches on the grip to reactivate the anti-grav supports.

"First time I've been surprised by an attack."

The momentary pause that had allowed me to regain my bearings was over, apparently, as he thrust once more inside my guard. I twisted slightly so the blade would meet only the plates of my armor and threw my elbow into his jaw. The hit landed but he didn't even flinch, focusing on trying to run his blade through one of the gaps between the plates. He found one, but withdrew when he discovered it was extremely resistant to bladed attacks. Before he could formulate another plan of attack, a white blur hit the ground in between us, a thin blue rod of light thrusting inside his guard in one natural motion. I felt a wall of force push me back towards Blake's body.

Weiss had fallen out of the sky.

"Vode! Get the package on _Patch!_ **Now!** " I obeyed Ruby's order before I really understood it – a side effect of spending my life with the woman on the battlefield. Hefting Ember Celica in my right hand, I scooped up Blake in my left and looked around.

About ten meters north, hovering a meter above the grass was our ship: _Patch._ Jaune stood on the ramp holding his hand out toward me, so I began a dead sprint toward him, forgetting about Weiss and the assassin. In this moment my world was focused on making it to that ship with our objective dying over my shoulder.

As I leapt in the direction of the boarding ramp, I recalled that Jaune wasn't exactly the model Mandalorian strength-wise about the same time I remembered that I currently weighed well over three hundred kilos. Imagine my surprise when he catches the package and I with one hand and hefts us on board the ship before calling out to his girlfriend.

"Weiss, they're on board! Move!"

I didn't pause to watch Weiss disengage the assassin, noticing crimson running down my shoulder at an alarming rate.

"Somebody get me a medkit! I need foam!" I shouted as I unceremoniously dumped her on the ship's cargo bay and extracted my vibrosword. One fluid motion and the armor was split down the side. I peeled it off and got a good look at the damage the assassin had wrought. A bottle of disinfectant was shoved in my hand from the side, Pyrrha's voice accompanying it.

"She's lost a lot of blood, do you have materials for a transfusion?"

"In the medbay, we'll move her when the bleeding's done." I talked quickly as I sprayed the wound with the disinfectant. Forcing the spray back to Pyrrha, I felt another item pushed in my hand. Foam. It was an unusual addition to a medkit, being a few ingredients away from the foam they use to patch starship hulls, but when you live a life like ours the ability to stop bleeding and keep a wound held together so you could continue the fight was invaluable.

I applied a generous amount to the wound, waited a moment, and turned her over. The exit wound was clean, that was good. I repeated the process with Pyrrha's help, disinfecting and closing the hole before sitting back a little and preparing to lift the package back to the medbay.

Her armor had hid quite a lot about the girl, her back and sides held countless scars that looked like they had been fairly serious wounds. That hadn't been what got my attention, however. Her back held a solitary tattoo, right in the middle of her spinal cord. It was a symbol, one that had haunted my dreams endlessly for the past ten years: the crest of the Brotherhood of Darkness surrounding a simple symmetrical design.

It had been on the armor of the Sith that murdered my mother.

She had a lot of talking to do.


	12. Chapter Ten

**Chapter Ten**

* * *

"She's a Sith! An assassin! How in the world are we still talking about this? Debating what to do with her?" I let my annoyance out, not bothering to even attempt to reproduce the cool façade that my master had tried to instill in me.

"She's an asset! Yang thinks that she might know something valuable to us. I'm afraid if your only solution to this is chucking that girl out the airlock, this meeting is over." Ruby had been saying things like this for the last hour or so, that Sith scum was an 'asset' to the sisters. She wouldn't reveal why or how, just that she wasn't going to give her up to my Master and, by proxy, the Jedi Order. It wouldn't be so hard to come to an agreement here if Pyrrha didn't agree with the mercenaries at almost every point.

Master Goodwitch cleared her throat and at once every voice was quieted. She hadn't talked much in this meeting for some reason, normally she would be the one to take charge and demand obedience in a setting like this, yet she had left me in charge, saying my Trial hadn't been finished yet. "This bickering will not do. No choice can be made by such immovable stances. I suggest we sleep on this decision, perhaps the girl in question will be awake enough to help us make a decision. Until then, I offer the stores and comforts of the _Beacon_ to each of you."

It was worded as a suggestion, but my Master had spent her life dealing with individuals far more powerful and egotistical than us. It was taken as an order over a suggestion by everyone there, some more readily than others.

"I think that's a fantastic idea, master Jedi. If you'll excuse me, I should get cleaned up." A snappy salute and Pyrrha was the first to walk off. A simple half-bow from Ren and he followed, leaving Ruby and myself with Master Goodwitch.

"I hope both of you know that we will give up anything to ensure this asset stays in our capable hands. I have no problems working for the Republic, but I care very little about this war and who wins what. There's always another client." Ruby paused in front of me before walking out as if she was going to continue speaking, but decided against it and moved to reenter _Patch,_ her heavy metal armor making plenty of noise as she moved down the hallways.

"Weiss, if you would stay awhile, please." Another 'suggestion' from my Master. I complied without complaint, but the tone practically held up a sign saying 'serious lecture about levelheadedness.'

"Of course, Master." I bowed before sitting back down across from her, patiently waiting for her to finally give me some form of instruction about what I'm supposed to be doing.

"You are agitated that I have stayed out of this discussion?" It wasn't so much a question as it was an explanation for my behavior.

"Well, yes. To put it bluntly, I needed your support! The Mandalorian's greatest ally at the table is Commander Nikos, if we could sway her we would finally be able to deal with the Sith on their ship, and the fastest way to get her on our side is to show that this is a decision supported by a Jedi Master!"

"I will not make any decision here, Weiss. I told you, this is your trial. Your decision to make."

"That doesn't make any sense! You keep talking as if there's the possibility that I spare her! She's a Sith assassin! She kills Jedi like us for a living; it's all she knows!" This is ridiculous, surly my master knows what kind of beast the others are trying to protect!

"Go. Meditate on this for a while. I will call another meeting in two hours, your mind must be made up by then."

I rose, the conversation obviously over. Bowing, I made my way to my room aboard the _Beacon._ A haven of sorts where I could sort this all out.

That girl was a monster, yes, but the others refuse to see it. I understood why the Mandalorians are acting this way, they're still calling the Sith an 'asset' or 'the package.' They saw her as a means to an end, despite being rather closed off as to what that end was. Ren refused to answer any questions, saying he was behind whatever decision we made, as 'such things were unimportant to Nora and himself.' Pyrrha was the mystery here – completely agreeing with me until a few moments before the meeting where Jaune mentioned something to her. Whatever he told her changed her mind from sending the bitch to a high security prison somewhere never to see the light of day (or an execution if the courts ruled it) to being in favor of continuing to offer the beast protection from the Brotherhood assassins coming after her while transporting her to the _Atlas_ , where General Ironwood would be responsible for her protection and, if she was willing, her repurposing.

Whatever Jaune had told Pyrrha was enough to change everything about this situation, and I was sure it was some sort of pacifistic sentiment he and his master held dear to their hearts. Some situations require action! Hadn't they learned that from the Mandalorian war? The Jedi Civil War and the extinction that followed? Even now, the Jedi Order avoided official conflict with the Brotherhood of Darkness, forcing some Jedi to take an almost feudalistic stance in the Outer Rim to protect people.

This **had** to be one of those situations! This thing was obviously our enemy!

Jaune was waiting for me outside our quarters, patiently leaning against the doorframe.

"If you're here to try to change my mind it won't work. She's a monster and deserves to be caged." I moved to push past him but he stood up and blocked my path. I let out a groan of agitation, something that would usually cause him to relent in whatever he was doing to annoy me and leave.

It didn't work this time.

"You should go talk to her, at least. Let her explain herself."

"What's to explain? That she wasn't responsible for the blood she spilt? That she is somehow not some creature trained with a stick to kill Jedi?"

"She'll be the first to admit being a monster, Weiss," he kept his voice steady, acting more like the Jedi Jaune than the normal, goofy Jaune. Perhaps he had a point; after all, Jaune didn't get all serious for everything. "Just, go talk to her. If you still think shipping her off to intermingle with the other 'beasts,' than fine. But I can _feel_ that she's not destined for that."

Great, he dragged feelings into this. Blast him and his extreme sensitivity to the mystic branches of the Force, I can't just ignore advice like that and he knew it.

I stood back and sighed, "Isn't she still unconscious from being gored with that assassin's blade?"

He shook his head, "I took care of her as soon as you were back aboard _Patch_. Yang did an excellent job of stopping the bleeding, so I could take my time fixing the damage to the internals."

Blast it all. "Fine, you win, I'll go talk to her."

He bowed and went into our room before shutting the door in my face. I turned on my heel and walked to the docking port, doing my best to let go of all the anger I was feeling. It was unhealthy, unfitting, and unsafe.

I passed Pyrrha who waved at me from one of the larger refreshers, her armor taken off and splayed around her on the floor. I waved back, but didn't stop to talk, she'd no doubt try to tell me the same thing Jaune told me, and I didn't need another piece of advice today.

The _Patch_ was the same as I left it earlier, a small and agile ship a fourth the size of the _Beacon_. I had no doubt that many of the modifications its owners had made were classified as illegal by the Republic, but when you did so much mercenary work for the Republic Military as these two had officials tend to turn a blind eye.

The medbay was easy to find, the _Patch_ only had a single deck after all. Yang stood in front of the door, still dressed in her armor (sans helmet) with her humongous blaster leaning against her. It seems that Yang and Ruby were taking the situation here as seriously as they sounded. Seeing me, she stood to her full height, easily a head taller than me, and crossed her arms.

"What do you want, Weiss? The package is barely able to stand on her own strength, don't you Jeti require some sort of duel before you can kill someone?"

"No, I'm…sorry about my decisions up to this point. Jaune pointed out that I'd never even talked to the girl, so I'm here to remedy that."

Yang looked at me suspiciously, likely trying to think of a reason to deny me entry. A moment later, she had one.

"I can't let you take the lightsaber in, you might lose your temper, Ice Queen."

Any other day I'd explain that I didn't need the lightsaber to kill someone, but I was in a hurry to get this over with so I could meditate as my master instructed. I unclipped the hilt from my belt and handed it to the Mandalorian, "Don't play with it. It cuts through most everything, and despite how it looks, it is fairly fragile in untrained hands."

She nodded, a little surprised at how quickly I'd agreed to her restriction. I pushed her aside gently and walked through the door, closing it again behind me.

The beast was propped up into a semi-seated position on the operating table, a data pad on her lap as her amber eyes met mine. She spoke first, her voice coming out level and unemotive.

"I suppose you're here to get me to beg for my life? I thought you Jedi were supposed to be above that."

"I wouldn't kill you, if that's what you think. It isn't the Jedi way. I simply want you to answer for your crimes." I didn't bother with introductions or pleasantries. Best to get this over with quickly.

"But my crimes leave only one proper punishment, don't they. I've killed your people. Jedi Knights, apprentices. Even some younglings." Her voice waivered on the final thought, dropping down to just over a whisper. She broke eye contact and elected to look down at her lap instead.

Jaune had said she admitted to being a monster, but that hadn't prepared me for this. There was remorse in her voice. Beasts weren't supposed to feel remorse.

"You…regret killing Jedi?" She paused and looked at me again before responding, her voice returning to its neutral, composed tone.

"Not all of them, no. I was fighting a war. They were soldiers, just like me. In my shoes, you'd have done the same thing."

"I…" she cut me off before I could continue.

"Are you here to talk about my past or decide on my future? WE could spend the next day talking about how horrified I am in retrospect, I could lie to your face and convince you I'm just a victim in this, but I won't. I have information you need, and you have the capacity to protect me. I'm no fool, I don't want to die."

I likely looked a bit imbecilic standing there before her with my mouth open. She wasn't denying anything, wasn't acting guilty or remorseful for the majority of her crimes. She knew what she was and why we needed her, and she said it all with such a matter-of-fact voice. It took a few seconds for me to recover, but soon I bowed before turning around and opening the door.

"I think I have all I need. This has been enlightening, thank you."

The door shut behind me. I looked around for Yang to reclaim my lightsaber, but the blond girl was nowhere to be seen. In her place was a girl with black hair around my height wearing a leather duster and some simple pants. She twirled my hilt absently in her hand while nodding to me with a smile.

"Ruby?"

"In the flesh, you didn't think we just wore our beskar'gam around the ship, did you?" She laughed a little before tossing me my lightsaber and motioning for me to follow.

Normally when a person changes out of their full armor they look a little less dangerous, but somehow Ruby managed to look just as deadly wearing simple civvies. I had no doubt that she was armed to the teeth in some way, but that wasn't why; she just carried herself with a kind of presence that broadcasted her as someone that you didn't want to mess with.

Needless to say, the smiling and gentle giggles were a little out of place with the rest of her body language.

"Have a nice little chat with our guest?" She was being far nicer to me right now than she had been at the meeting earlier. It was obvious that she wanted something. I had to tread carefully.

"I wouldn't call it nice, but I believe it was productive."

"That sounds nice. She manage to change your mind?"

"She made progress. Something has managed to continue bothering me, however."

"Oh?" Her face fell a little when she realized where I was going, but if I could use this to find out why these two wanted that Sith girl so badly, I was going to.

"Why are you so set on keeping that Sith on your ship? Surely Pyrrha has already arranged your payment from successfully collecting her?"

"Is it really that important?"

"It might be what changes my mind."

She sighed, motioning for me to sit down across from her in the central area we'd walked to.

"You remember yesterday when we met? I mentioned some Sith pissing us off, pushing us to do a larger amount of work for the Republic?" I nodded in response and waited for her to continue.

"The group that pissed us off hired our mother for some job a few years ago, right when the Brotherhood started their activity. She did as she was paid to do quickly and efficiently, not a single problem on the operation. When she showed up to collect her payment, they cut her down from behind."

"I didn't….I'm sorry for your loss."

"Thanks, but that's a waste of breath. Death is just a part of things, if we were afraid of it we wouldn't have survived long as a mercenary culture, would we?" She gave a lifeless chuckle at that before continuing, "No, we might want revenge, but moping about asking for others to mourn with us is a waste of time."

"You think this assassin will lead you to the group that did this?"

"Yang is sure of it."

I sighed, my hand going up to rub the bridge of my nose. This was all too much, between the assassin and Ruby everything I thought was being jumbled together with all this new information. "I need to go meditate, thank you for sharing this with me. I'm sure it will help clear up the will of the Force." I stood to leave, but Ruby stopped me, a warm smile back on her face.

"Weiss, just go with your gut. You already told me you weren't really in with all that fortune teller stuff that a lot of Jeti hold so dear, but you've got good instincts. I don't know about the 'will of the Force,' but I figure your gut is as good a place as any for it to show up, right?"

To say I was surprised at how much sense she made would be an understatement. "That's actually, well, really wise Ruby. Are you sure you're just a mercenary?"

She let go of my arm and leaned back in her chair, "Nope, I'm just as I seem!"

"Yes, of course you are. It was surprisingly nice to talk to you, I'm glad we had this chance."

"You too, princess. I'm sorry if I came across as some heartless soldier on planet, it's all for the good of the op."

I bowed and walked back to the _Beacon_ , ready to hit the 'freshers and change out of my battle worn robes. Ruby had some good advice, I decided to just go with my gut when master Goodwitch called us back together to discuss the girl in the medbay.

* * *

"Commander Nikos, there is a transmission coming from the _Atlas_! It is marked both high priority and top secret!"

"Thank you, P3-N1, is there anywhere private I can go to view it?"

"There are guest quarters available on deck two with appropriate equipment, shall I send it there?"

"That would be very helpful, thank you!"

"Sensational! I am very glad to be of service, Commander!"

I had given up on correcting the droid to call me Pyrrha last time we'd met. Some droids are simply programmed to be far too polite and aware of social structures.

This transmission was worry some, however. If it came from the _Atlas_ , it was no doubt from General Ironwood and it almost certainly involved new mission orders regarding the woman we'd rescued from Dantooine. I hoped that they didn't involve caving to Weiss' demands that we send her to prison to be tried for her crimes, Jaune seemed certain that she would turn herself around and contribute in a very meaningful way to this war and we needed all the help we could get.

I straightened the lines of my fatigues out as well as I could before heading down to talk to my superior officer, old military habits finding their way back to my person with the ease that came with years of service. It was terrifying to go into the debriefing meeting Weiss had called while still wearing my soiled combat armor, but she seemed very intent on getting it out of the way.

It wasn't difficult to find the room P3-N1 mentioned: it was the only room on deck two that wasn't shut and locked. I stepped in and immediately shut and locked the door.

"P3-N1, would you please cut this room off from the rest of the ship, I'm afraid I can't allow this to be in the _Beacon's_ records."

"Absolutely, Commander!" She may have finished her sentence, but I didn't hear it as she immediately did as I asked. Regulations may be a little annoying at times, but they were necessary.

The console in the room was blinking, ready to open the channel I had been summoned for. A simple switch and the likeness of a military man filled the desk before me.

Reflexively, I snapped to attention, my hand raising quickly to a smart salute. He returned the salute and smiled at me.

"At ease, Commander. Your report came in, I understand the deserter we payed the Mandalorian mercenaries to bring in was a Brotherhood assassin?"

"Yes, sir."

"You have to give me more than that, Commander, what do you think of her? I want your opinion before I make any decisions regarding this assassin's future."

That wasn't unusual for General Ironwood. He was a good commanding officer, easily my favorite to serve under so far. He wasn't afraid to pass down hard orders to his subordinates, but he spent just as much time making sure he understood the situation entirely. He trusted those under him to have a good head, and more often than not took whatever we told him very seriously.

"Sir, I have no problem with continuing with the original assignment. The Mandalorians are now very adamant that they play a larger part in the assassin's protection, however, and the Jedi I mentioned are split as to what they want to do."

"I'm going to be frank with you, Commander. If your report is accurate, we need this girl to help us. The branch of the Brotherhood she belonged to is responsible for dozens of atrocities all across the Outer Rim, and they're only getting worse. It seems these mutated beasts you came across are the newest addition to their arsenal. I'm assigning you to use this assassin to track down the group responsible and uncover where they plan on unleashing their latest abomination."

"Understood, General. Where shall I meet my taskforce?"

"You're already with them. I'm sending you a new contract for the Mandalorians, they'll be paid to help you investigate. Additionally, the Jedi Master you mentioned in the report is an old friend of mine, I'm sure she would lend you some form of support without much fuss. I would offer to send others from the fleet, but the track record of the mercenaries is unblemished, anyone else is likely to simply get in your way."

"Of course, sir. If that's all, I will begin preparations immediately."

"That's all. Ironwood out." He snapped another salute, which I immediately returned, before the hologram disappeared. The terminal beeped, asking me to insert a datapad. Doing so, a file was transferred onto it, the new contract for Ruby and Yang. I wasn't ordered to look at it, so I didn't; it was likely above my paygrade.

Time to go tell Weiss the news. I was looking forward to this less than I had been looking forward to talking to the general. I couldn't really decide what that meant about Weiss.

* * *

 **Next time, on Trials: Weiss passes the first of her Jedi Trials! Pyrrha gets everyone to go to a dangerous planet to investigate clues! Yang and Nora go to a bar!  
**


	13. Chapter Eleven

**Chapter Eleven**

* * *

It wasn't a long walk back to the conference room when it was time to reconvene, but I had to admit it was a different one. The first time I was still wearing my armor, still the picture of the perfect professional Mando who demanded respect, fear, and compensation. This time around the only pieces of armor I had on me were my greaves, everything else replaced with simple clothing and a red bantha-skin jacket.

That wasn't to say I wasn't armed to the teeth – my mother had always taught me to go into every situation with at least three ways of killing anything and everything in the room. It was how Mandalorians did things.

Some people took my outfit swap better than others, I'd run into Weiss who managed to take it in stride, but Nora was a different story. She'd been following me around, dragging Ren along, for the length of the _Patch_ and more than half of the _Beacon_ so far. I'd given up on actively listening to the woman in fear for my sanity, but I tuned into bits and pieces every so often.

"I had no idea you'd have such a young face! I was pretty sure you had a face, but you never really know with people do you? Ren and I once met a Toydarian without a face! It was weird, so I figured maybe you didn't have one like he didn't, but then I thought that if you were missing a face you wouldn't need a helmet to look all scary and intimidating and…"

Did she even need to breathe? Nora was a sweet girl and all, but I didn't know how Ren managed it.

"Nora, we need to get ready for a meeting now. Why don't you go prep some detonators on _Patch_ while I'm busy, I'll come find you as soon as I can," Ren was an expert at diffusing Nora and sending her off, although he always seemed to do so regretfully, as if sending her away was physically painful for him. Maybe it was, they'd been together for a while now, as far as I could gather.

"Thanks, I don't think I could have asked her to leave."

He simply nodded at me, moving past that conversation immediately, "Would you like a cup of caf? I was going to go make myself one."

"That would be excellent, thank you." He quietly walked down the hall to the galley attached to the conference room in search of the hot beverage, and I silently gave praise to my good fortune. I didn't dislike people, but having to deal with people I didn't know well was exhausting. I preferred to stay in my armor where I could play the part of a faceless weapon, but Yang was of the opinion that we'd be working with most of these people for a while now, so I may as well just be myself. Naturally I'd told her that her idea was a load of osik and that I was by no means ready to 'be myself' around strangers like these, but Yang was extremely persuasive when she needed to be.

"Weiss, I see you're ready to continue. Did you find the answers you sought though the Force?" The cool voice of Weiss' Jeti master, Goodwitch, was barely audible through the door. On the one hand, I likely should have just left and helped Ren make the caf, but Mandalorians weren't really known for their adhesion for the 'right thing to do,' so I moved against the wall and listened closer.

"I think I did, master. After talking to the assassin, I've decided that maybe she would be more…useful to us alive." Now I didn't know Weiss very well, but I could tell when someone was giving half an answer to save face to another person, and man was Weiss trying to save face.

Goodwitch seemed to have the same idea, as she continued without missing a beat, putting pressure on her pupil: "I see. What makes you positive that this is, in fact, the will of the Force?"

"Well, Jaune seemed to think…"

"I didn't ask what Jaune thinks, Weiss,"

"I know, but he's more connected than I'll ever be! He just…gets it!"

"It's true that Jaune is remarkably attuned to the Force, but if you wish to be a Jedi you must learn to see things for yourself. I can feel that you have an explanation for your revelation, Weiss."

"I do, it's just not very concrete. It's not permissible evidence. I talked to the subject in question, Jaune, and a few others who all seemed to agree that this is the right choice."

"Weiss, this isn't about opinions or others, this is about the will of the living Force. What did it tell you?" She was getting more and more aggressive with her student, apparently trying her hardest to force Weiss into giving away her method.

When Weiss responded her voice was quiet, sounding ashamed of her answer: "I feel it in my gut. My gut is telling me that she truly wants to help people, and that she is truly interested in walking a different path."

The cold hearted chakaar had taken my advice!

…

Oh, blast, she'd taken my advice! Why would she do that? I'm just some ver'verd! A lowlife! What in the world did I know about this kinda stuff? I was just being polite, giving the same advice I'd been given as a girl by my buirs on the battlefield!

My breakdown was stopped in its tracks by Goodwitch letting out the briefest of chuckles before speaking, "It's taken you so long, my apprentice, but you're finally actively communicating with the Force. I knew that you would figure it out!"

What? My sentiment seemed to be shared by Weiss, as she let out a breath of relief started talking before she could put full thoughts together, "I could have sworn… you said to meditate….Ruby was right?"

"Ruby told you to go with your gut, I take it? Yes I can see that. I feel a great deal of potiential in that woman – she's destined for greatness. Oobleck feels it too, he sees your destines intertwined, as I'm sure he's already told you."

"Oobleck? No…he has–"

My eavesdropping was cut off by Ren's appearance beside me, silently holding out a cup of caf in one hand while balancing another cup in his other hand.

"I added plenty of cream and sweetener to this, I noticed how much you put in earlier."

I laughed nervously as I accepted the drink, "Yeah, I've got a bit of a sweet tooth. Not really surprising considering where I'm from, I guess." He raised an eyebrow prompting me to continue and I forced myself to smile and comply; after all, you can't make friends if you don't put yourself out there, and Ren and Nora would be invaluable members of the _Patch's_ crew if they agreed to what Yang and I were planning on offering them. "Well, we Mandos have very common taste. We're a warrior culture, always have been, so all of our food is _yai'yai_ – extremely nourishing, dense, and high-calorie. If you eat that for every meal for generations, you tend to adapt your cooking style to make it taste like something other than hardened dung, so our recipes are almost always _draluram_ – which sorta' means that the food has a really strong flavor. Sometimes it's extremely spicy, sometimes it's extremely sweet, sometimes it's extremely bitter. We tend to go all out on the flavor, we're a people of extremes."

It was weird how easy talking about my culture to Ren, he was polite, nodding every once in a while to encourage me, taking the Mando'a I'd been forced to add in with their explanations in stride. I spent the next few minutes describing my favorite dishes, naturally spending an inordinate amount of time talking about the Uj'alayi cake and how my father was unnaturally gifted in its preparation after finding out how much I enjoyed it. I talked about the Oyu'baat on Manda'yaim, going into detail about how its legendary spiced caf was the only time I could bear the drink without sweetener and cream, as well as how the dingy little tapcaf had served as the de facto center for Mando politics for as long as anyone cared to remember. I was about to start in on my personal recipe for Haarshun bread and how well it paired with almost any edible flora when the door slid open and an extremely proud looking white-haired Jeti bowed before us.

"I apologize for forcing you to wait outside, please, sit."

Ren took it all in stride, bowing back to Weiss and turning to me before calmly (and silently) following me over to where we'd sat earlier today "Our discussion was enlightening, I'm sure Nora would adore this…Uj'alaya cake." He stumbled over the pronunciation and I smiled as encouragingly as I could at him before gently correcting him.

"Uj'alayi cake, most people just shorten it to Uj, though. Don't sweat the pronunciation, it comes with time."

He smiled softly at me and bowed before turning to Weiss, who had taken her seat opposite us to properly greet her. Bows were exchanged and pleasantries thrown about, things I had no real patience for.

As if to save me from sitting through an eternity of polite conversation, the final member of our makeshift committee came through the door.

"I apologize for my tardiness, I must have forgotten to synch my chrono with the _Beacon's_ internal time."

Goodwitch simply waved her hand in dismissal, "Nonsense, you're precisely on time as always, commander."

Pyrrha let off a sharp salute to the Jeti master before taking her seat beside Weiss. A moment of silence was shared before Goodwitch spoke again.

"I hope we've all had some time to clean up and cool off, I'm certain that you will come to a much easier solution to your problem now that you've taken some time to relax and think. Weiss, I once again leave the rest to you."

"Very well, master. I would like to go around the table once more before we make any decisions and re-voice our opinions on the Sith prisoner. Pyrrha, if you'd begin?"

"Of course. After consulting my superiors, I believe the best decision is to allow Blake to travel with the crew of the _Patch_ so long as said crew is willing to accept my aid as well as a renewed contract with the Republic Military."

Well, it was my turn to speak up before someone else spoke up for me. "I'm sure we can reach an acceptable agreement, the Republic has been good to their word so far."

"Very well. With you two in agreement, I would like to hear from Ren."

"I would side with Ruby. The girl has made no motion to harm Nora or myself, and I have seen the character behind all the women at this table. I am confident in their leadership capabilities, Ruby's especially."

He said it so matter-of-factly that I couldn't even find it in myself to be embarrassed by the blunt way he praised my 'leadership capabilities.' He would make an excellent Mando indeed, as long as he could fight.

"Very well. I suppose I am facing opposition on every side were I to keep my original stance. However, I feel that it is the will of the Force to allow the assassin to redeem herself, so I would ask to join your team that Jaune and I could keep an eye on her."

"I have no problem with that, but it's not my call. Ruby?" Pyrrha seemed taken aback by Weiss' change of heart, but I had the benefit of hearing her through the door earlier. This was the place everyone seemed to want to avoid – asking the captain of a starship to take on relative unknowns as crew. I had a feeling Pyrrha's job would be uphill, so I wasn't as afraid as many would be to take the extra hands.

"The _Patch_ has space for eight people on top of cargo and rations, but I expect every soul aboard to comply with my orders, naturally including abiding by a duty roster to keep the girl operational. If everyone can agree, I'm willing to leave today."

The relief around the room was practically audible. Ren relaxed in his chair, from what I knew of him he was likely just happy that he and Nora would have a stable place to stay for a while. Pyrrha let her shoulders drop from the stiff position she had been in and slid over a datapad that probably contained the mission her superiors wanted to hire me for, and Weiss looked pleased that her request was accepted so quickly.

"It's settled. Ruby, the _Beacon's_ quartermaster will transfer any needed supplies to the _Patch_ at your request, other than that I believe we should make preparations to depart in ten hours, if you believe that's possible."

I nodded, "Gar serim. That's right, _Patch_ doesn't need much in the way of preparation to go to war, considering who she belongs to. If that's the consensus, I'll be detaching in ten hours at 2100. You get one bag and whatever weapon supplies you need to bring aboard, everything else gets spaced. Suvari?"

A round of nods indicated that they understood. It's good that they were picking up the bits of Mando'a I was spreading about, they'd need to know some if they were going to keep up on the _Patch_ , especially considering a lot of the signage and warning labels were printed in the language. Small reminders of who we are.

I was surprised at myself when I started talking again, 'al'verde Rub'ika' (as Yang has come to call it) coming out even without armor: "Good, if there's nothing else, I expect to see those around me, saving the noble Jeti master here, I assume," a gracious nod from Goodwitch allowed me to continue, "to be aboard by 1900 so we can begin plotting a course and discussing the mission parameters Pyrrha has supplied me. I'll ensure that Blake," I made sure to stress the woman's name. If she was to be part of the crew now, she'd be called by her name, "is well enough to brief us on what she can. You can talk to Yang, myself, or Zwei on where you'll be staying. Dismissed."

The last part left my mouth without me realizing it, a side effect of the commanding presence I put on when I needed to be al'verde Ruby – commander Ruby. It was taken graciously however, as Pyrrha's military training forced her to her feet and into a smart salute before she, or indeed anyone else, could respond to the way I'd effectively ended the meeting.

The room emptied quickly, soon only Goodwitch, Weiss, and I were left.

"Ruby, if you're going to be in command of this new operation I feel my padawan must inform you of something." Goodwitch looked at Weiss with a demanding gaze as the younger woman realized what she had said. I expected her to protest the position of power her master had put me in over her, but instead she took a deep breath and described in greater detail what exactly her Jeti Trials would mean for the road ahead.

* * *

"Ah! Jaune! Thank you for coming before you left with Weiss! I feel that we desperately need to discuss your future before you go out parading across the Outer Rim in search of the Brotherhood of Darkness! You see, I'd feel much better if you'd simply accept my offer to turn in the overwhelming evidence of your prowess as a Jedi to the council. You're easily ready to be inducted as a full Jedi Knight, why you're more skilled than many I've come across in my day, and with your unique abilities on the battlefield the council would almost certainly agree with me."

Great. This talk again. I'd hoped to avoid this discussion before leaving with Weiss and the Mandalorians, but it seems my master had other ideas.

"Like I've said before, Master, I'm just not ready to be a Jedi. My lightsaber skills have a ways to go, I still need guidance in a number of areas…"

"I can sense your lies, Jaune. I feel there's something deeper, and I must insist that this time you finally come clean with me. If I'm satisfied with your answer, I'll delay contacting the council for another cycle, but only if you tell me the truth. And it's a good truth, not some nonsense like you tend to spout off about your lack of skills or general worthlessness." He was talking faster than usual. I'd been his student long enough to know that he was doing it on purpose, trying to put me off guard so I'd be more willing to be honest with my answers. It normally wouldn't work, but he'd already shot my usual excuses down.

I sighed, my hand went up to rub the back of my head on reflex, an obvious tell for when I was unsure or uncomfortable that I usually tried to keep under control. My efforts had been in vain so far, but determination was 80% of the solution to any problem.

"Master, I don't want the responsibilities that come with being a Jedi Knight. I'm not like Weiss, I don't want to be called to settle conflicts or end minor wars, but I know that with my talents I would be guaranteed that life. You've always taught me that violence was a last resort; that non-aggression was the Jedi way, but despite all that I developed into a battlefield titan. One step and I turn the tide of any conflict, a day of meditation and I can turn the tide of war. The council knows you as a diplomat, so we get assigned diplomatic missions, but I'm more useful as a warrior, and I'm not ready to give in to that yet."

He calmed down and looked at me with understanding. Talking slowly (for my master) he put a hand on my shoulder, "I should have known you were worried about that. While it's true that Battle Meditation is a rare gift that you have an unprecedented knack for, it does not mean you would be sent to conflict after conflict as a tool. We have been in the Outer Rim far too long, gotten used to the Jedi Lords way of doing things, but never forget that the Jedi Council hasn't gone to war since the days of Revan. The great joy of being a Jedi Knight is going where the Force guides you, where you're truly needed."

"So my reason is good enough?"

"I'm afraid not, Jaune. I've already contacted the council, I'm afraid, and Master Ozpin has already agreed with me." He offered a sympathetic smile as I heard two lightsabers ignite behind me. Oobleck's green blade followed, the familiar hum resonating as erratically as its wielder. "Kneel, Jaune Arc."

I did as commanded, the weight of the words forcing me to my knees without a thought. This was it, the culmination of my entire life before now.

Master Goodwitch spoke first from behind me, her voice carrying the weight of thousands of Jedi before her, "You will forever look back on this moment as one of great joy, but also one of great sorrow. You know by now, after years of study under your master, that the two are often closely linked.

"You have shown a life lived by the Jedi Code. Emotion does not cloud your mind, but guides you through the will of the Force. Ignorance is a stranger to your soul, as you spend every hour of your life in search of truth. Passion does not impede your judgement, instead it is discarded in favor of serenity. Your life is void of chaos, instead you notice the beautiful harmony that permeates the Galaxy. You live unafraid of death, trusting in the will of the Force."

Oobleck's voice returned, steady and filled with just as much weight as Goodwitch's as he continued the ceremony: "We are all Jedi. Our actions are the will of the living Force, and in this hour we act upon that very will. Jaune Arc, by the will of the Force and the right of the Jedi Council, I dub thee Jedi, Knight of the Republic."

A twitch and Oobleck severed my braid, allowing it to float down to the floor. As one, the three lightsabers were extinguished, and Oobleck pulled me to my feet and into a great embrace.

I could feel his tears stain my tunic, he must have been so proud of me. I didn't deserve any of this, but still, here I was.

Pulling myself out of my mentor's arms, I looked behind me. Master Goodwitch was smiling, as was Weiss. I was afraid that I would see envy, some sort of disgust at me being knighted before her, but she seemed genuinely pleased at the situation; perhaps she'd overheard what I'd told Oobleck before he sprung his trap on me.

"Thank you, masters, I do not deserve such an honor."

"Nonsense, Jaune. And no more of the 'master' talk. We are on equal footing now. I expect you to call me Glynda from here on out as all my peers do. You are destined for greatness, Jaune. Never doubt that."

I doubted that very much, but it was improper to say so. Instead, I bowed deeply to my peers and picked up the bag I'd prepared on my bunk. "Well, I'm honored all the same. Now I must depart, Blake is very close to a full recovery and I expect Ruby wants her ready for action by the meeting Weiss told me about."

"Keep in contact, Jaune. You may no longer be my pupil, but I still consider you my closest friend. May the Force be with you."

"And also with you, Bartholomew." Another bow and I was out of the room, leaving Weiss to deal with her master.

* * *

Explosives were simple and straightforward. Red wires go to red ports, green to green, and don't stick anything carrying a current into anything that is supposed to explode. That's all the training I got when I was younger and it'd paid off immensely. Ren always says I'm some sort of prodigy in explosives, so I must be, he's not usually wrong about things.

"Whatcha' doin?" That was definitely Yang. I wondered what she was wearing, if she had changed out of her armor like Ruby had. What did she look like? Ruby was a pretty woman, not stacked but built very tastefully. Maybe Yang was the same? Was she older than Ruby? Ruby looked much younger than she acted, but I was sure Yang was the older one despite being more subservient to her sister. I bet she had black hair too, that kind of gene is really dominate. Unless she didn't have the same parents? I'm pretty sure Mandalorians didn't really care about that sort of thing. I couldn't check any of this at the moment, I'd learned over time that you never look away when assembling a grenade, mistakes were expensive.

"I'm putting together some grenades, I fired most of them in that last fight and so I'm almost out. They're not hard to make, really, but they take a lot of time to do properly."

Yang interrupted me before I could continue, but I was fine with it. I knew I have a tendency to ramble, something that often gave me nightmares involving Ren getting sick of it and leaving. He's never really shown that he minds that much, but most other people seem to be off put by it. "That's pretty cool! Ruby tells me that you and Ren are joining us on our little adventure! When you're done I'd love to show you to your room, and then maybe we could hang out? The others will be busy planning out what to do and where to go, you know, boring stuff!"

So Yang wants to hang out with me? That's wildly exciting! I wonder what she wanted to do? I quickly finished the grenade I was working on and tossed it to the side, turning to Yang who had a shocked expression on her face. Did I say something? No, she talked last, maybe I have something on my face? Or…

"Did you just toss that grenade to the side? Isn't that dangerous?"

Oh, that's it. "No, it's fine! It's inert right now, it only becomes explosive after a current runs through the primer at the bottom, this one is specially fitted to be fired from Magnhild, pretty standard stuff for a Mandalorian grenade launcher. Ooh! I just realized **you're** Mandalorian just like Magnhild! I bet you could help me make grenades, right?"

Now that I was turned around I finally had my earlier questions answered, Yang was a blonde haired woman. She had changed out of her armor in favor of a loose fitting tunic and shorts, a blaster strapped to her waist and her white gauntlet still firmly in place. She was much different from Ruby, I bet I was right about her having a different parent! Some of the features carried through in the face, there was resemblance, but too many differences to be from the same exact gene pool. She was putting up her hands to stop me from talking too far ahead of our conversation, and she quickly started responding to my questions. She was much better at talking than most people, tons better than Ren. He almost never said a whole lot, but that's ok, he was a good listener.

"Sorry, Ruby's the besbe'trayce'adate. I'm sure she'd be glad to help later! So you good to get your stuff stowed in your bunk? We put you with Ren, I hope you're ok with that!"

She was cheery, that was great. And she'd put me in the same quarters as Ren, that was even better! I mean, we spent almost all of our time together, not together-together, but I couldn't imagine falling asleep without him in the room anymore! I wonder what that word had meant? Or was it a phrase? We were talking about Magnhild, so I bet it had something to do with that. I bet if I asked later Yang would teach me her language, maybe even let me wear some of that really cool armor! I bet it's super heavy, though. It didn't look like durasteel, so it had to be Mandalorian Iron, just like Magnhild!

"Sure! So you wanted to hang out? What do you want to do? I mean, I was going to suggest we build grenades or detonators, but you already said you didn't really know how. I could teach you, but that doesn't really sound like hanging out to me. What if we sparred? Mandalorians like to spar, right? Let's spar!"

Yang didn't stop me this time, which was good. It meant she wasn't getting tired of me, and she was laughing, so she must like me.

"Yeah, Mandos are born and bred to fight! I don't know if you can really keep up, though, might not be too fun for you." I could tell from her face she wasn't insulting me, just warning me that she hit really hard. That was ok, I could hit hard too, despite my size. I knew I was small, but I had to be strong to do everything Ren and I wanted to do, it was hard work sometimes. Not that Ren and I actually 'do' anything, we mostly just drift around looking for odd jobs or interesting things to explore. Ren tells me it's the only way we'll ever find any sort of contentment, he's sure that I couldn't find it in me to settle down in one place and he always says that he's happy whenever I'm happy, which is very sweet of him.

"Whatever I can't do, I'm sure you'll teach me! I'm a good learner. I learned how to make rounds for Magnhild from passing advice! Plus I've been in plenty of scraps before, I even have some scars!" I lifted my tunic to show Yang my prized scar, the one running from just below my right breast down to my belly button. Ren had been furious that I'd been hurt, but I think he was proud of me for keeping it together and continuing the fight until it was over. It hurt a lot at first, but then adrenaline kicked in and stopped hurting. She laughed again, but I could tell it wasn't making fun of me. I don't think Yang really ever makes fun of people, though she did like to tease bashful people like Jaune or Weiss. She was a nice person, though. Not as rough as I thought Mandalorians were supposed to be.

"That's nothing! Check this out!" She pulled her tunic up a little to show a scar running horizontally over her belly, it looked like it had grown with the skin, so she must have gotten it really young.

"Was that from a battle? Have you been in a lot of battles? What are they like?"

"Yeah, my first battle, actually. My buir gave me a knife and a blaster and told me to hold the line with him, we did it, but not before a stray shot got me right below what little armor I was wearing."

"Woah!"

"Well, here we are! Choose a bunk, I'm sure Ren won't mind second selection!"

She was on point, Ren never minded, he always made me choose what I wanted first. I think he just likes to see me smile, it brings him a bit of peace. He's always searching for peace, I'm always a little sad when he can't find it, so I do my best to smile all the time, just to help.

I chose the top bunk, naturally, that was always the more fun of the two bunks. Plus Ren liked being closer to the ground, but he'd never say that.

I threw my bag on top of the bunk and turned back around to Yang.

"Let's go fight now! Where do you guys fight on _Patch_?"

"You're sure you want to spar? We could do other things…"

"No, I'm sure! I've always wanted to meet a real Mandalorian, you guys are fantastic! I want to get the full experience while I can!"

Yang laughed again and pulled me toward the back of the ship to one of the cargo holds. It wasn't full like the other one had been, a section in the middle was clear with a mat down on the floor to signify where the limits of the circle were.

"Well, in that case, we'll do it right. Rules are simple, since you challenged me, I get to decide what weapons and equipment we use. For now, we'll just do hand to hand without armor, first to yield loses. No going outside of the ring."

I nodded eagerly, this was going to be exciting!

Yang moved first, she was fast! I couldn't even react to block quick enough, but I managed to move just enough that she overextended in the hit, losing most of her momentum to her adjustment to keep her balance. It still hurt a lot, she hit like a turbolaser. I threw my knee up, which was easily blocked, she was good! She let loose a series of blows that quickly overcame my defenses, soon I was outside the ring on the ground and Yang was smiling, reaching out to help me up.

"That's a match, you've got good instincts, just need some work in technique."

"That was incredible! You're incredible! You've got to teach me how to fight, I have to learn how to do that thing where you recover instantly! And maybe you could teach me some of your language, it sounds so cool!"

Yang smiled at me before moving my body around to a fighting stance.

"Sure, we can do all that, we've got plenty of time while the others plan. Now the trick to hand to hand combat isn't just raw power, it's using that power to get your opponent on the defensive."

* * *

 **That was quite a bit longer than most of the other chapters! I blame the Nora section, she takes up twice as many words for about an eighth as much time, but I always have fun just letting the words spill out.**

 **As far as explanations go, looking back I think I may have done a slightly subpar job with Jaune, so it may seem a bit like author fiat to give him a knighthood. To explain, Jaune is one of the few Jedi/Sith to have mastered the art of Battle Meditation. He's a little more unique in his ability to use a mild form when he's fighting on the field, gently turning the tide of any skirmish he enters. If he was to actually sit down and concentrate, however, he is just as capable as legends (e.g.** **Bastila Shan and Skere Kaan). Everything else is more or less as stated as above.**

 **Either way, thanks for reading this monster of a chapter! I promise Yang and Nora actually do go to a bar, I wasn't lying last week.**

 **-DtheTrain**


	14. Chapter Twelve

**Chapter Twelve**

* * *

Every pair of eyes in the room were on Blake as she stood before a star map with a ponderous look about her. We'd spent the last few hours aboard the _Patch_ discussing our next move, and only now had things gotten to the point of making decisions. Before now the talk was about our new responsibilities as members of Ruby's crew.

Nora and I were to stay in the same quarters, something that I'm positive had made Nora relax quite a bit. The others would be distributed evenly, Weiss would go to Ruby's, Blake to Yang's, and Pyrrha would share a space with Jaune. Weiss had protested in Pyrrha's defense, naturally, citing that Jaune and I should be the ones to share bunk space so we could keep the sexes separate, but Ruby was insistent that the two of us be placed together – something about Nora had given Ruby the notion that without my constant presence, the _Patch_ would explode. All things considered, it wasn't necessarily an incorrect notion.

"Well? Are you going to tell us what we're chasing after?" Weiss broke the silence in a carefully constructed voice. In place of the venomous tone she'd used earlier today when talking about Blake was a tone that screamed forced politeness. She very obviously disliked Blake despite her apparent change of heart regarding her fate, but at least she stopped talking about her like she was a beast.

"Would you find it so easy to talk about a lifetime of regret and suffering? I must decide where the relevant information is in this case. If you'd given me more than a few hours' notice before putting me on the spot I would have prepared a dossier, but for now I ask patience." If she felt offended at Weiss' general attitude towards her, she didn't let it show. "I suppose I'll begin with what I was privy to. A decade or so ago, my mentor and I were placed under an influential Sith Lady tasked by the Brotherhood to experiment with methods of subjugation. I suspect the goal was to cut off as many Republic supply lines as possible, thus the beginning of her experiments with the Grimm."

"You're referring to the beasts we encountered on Dantooine?" Pyrrha interrupted.

Blake nodded in response before elaborating, "Yes, those were creatures turned into the Grimm by the Dark Side of the Force. Last I remember they were still working out the problems with the transformation process, but when they finish the Brotherhood will have a weapon that grows in response to negative emotion. When I left, Adam, my mentor, and I were being sent out to seed the Grimm in small populations to test the creatures' effectiveness. We would approach a small colony in Republic Space, set loose the Grimm, and clean up after they were done."

Looks of terror filled the room, beside me Pyrrha gasped and across from me Ruby's mouth drew into a line.

"You're talking about committing war crimes! Slaughtering innocent people! How could you bring yourself to do that?" Weiss' agitation towards Blake had turned back into full blown disgust, her voice once again being carried by a cold, envenomed tone.

This was what I'd been waiting for – before now I had no reason to sympathize with Blake, but in the same vein I had no fantastic reason to distrust her. Many people around me had talked at length about Blake's desire for redemption, but I had yet to see concrete evidence.

But now her past was catching up to her, presumably painful memories getting torn open by a Jedi warrior, the very thing she'd been trained to destroy. Now she would react, her eyes would briefly allow me to see into her very soul.

"I know what I did."

Five words were spoken, but much more was communicated by the woman spending a fraction of a breath in mourning. The demeanor of forced calm was lifted for so brief a time, you would have missed it if you weren't looking for it. Behind it was Blake's soul, and it was indiscernible.

Pain was ingrained into every path, far deeper in some places than others. Her soul moved like a cloud of black gas constantly suffocating whatever light that may have once had control. Below the rippling gas were were two pools of blood, but even they were confusing. One of them, the larger of the two, simply existed with no emotion surrounding them, not contributing anything to the cloud above. The smaller pool sat in stark contrast. It spewed out more of the smoke that clouded Blake's soul than any one thing I could see in that moment.

I knew in a heartbeat that she carried some of the lives she took with her everywhere.

I knew in that single brief moment that Blake was worth my trust. That Blake was worth the second chance.

I stood up to command the attention of the group for the first time in hours and the table fell quiet.

Every pair of eyes were on me as I stood beside Blake in an act of solidarity.

"We are not here to pass judgement on the past. Judgement was rendered hours ago, and we decided to absolve her. She gets the clean slate we agreed on."

I left no room for argument. No suggestions, not even an ultimatum. There was no choice in this matter, and the table understood that.

Across the table, Ruby grinned and murmured something in her language, "Seen-fett-een," prompting the corner of Blake's mouth to raise ever so slightly.

"Ren's right, the decision was approved by Republic Military command, it's as good as law now."

It was nice of Pyrrha to speak up in support of me, but she wasn't the voice I expected to hear now. My eyes drilled into Weiss', making my desire clear to the Jedi. After a moment, her gaze fell in shame and the words that were expected from her fell heavy from her lips: "I'm sorry, Blake. That was uncalled for."

She didn't mean it entirely yet, but it was a start. I returned to my seat victorious, the mood around the table returning to what it had been before talk of genocide.

Ruby took Weiss' apology much more energetically then the rest of us. In the brief amount of time I'd spent with her, she seemed drawn to positivity, a strange characteristic to have as a mercenary.

"Glad I didn't have to force it out of you, Weiss! There'll be none of that aboard the _Patch_. You're _vode an_ now – comrades all. Now let's get back to getting a plan going so I can get us out of this system and Yang can make some dinner!"

"Right, well I suppose I can move on to the important parts now that we all know what's at stake. The Dark Lady and her Acolytes are always on the move, so tracking her through normal means is impossible – even for me. The easiest way of finding her is to go through her right hand, a man called Roman Torchwick. Torchwick handles everything that the Lady needs him to; from enlisting outsiders to claim essential worlds for the Brotherhood the old fashioned way to deploying Adam and I. If we could find him, we'd be guaranteed a shot at finding the Lady, or at the least, her acolytes."

Pyrrha voiced the question everyone wanted to ask: "So how do you plan on finding him?"

"He's used many different groups to take worlds from the Republic, none of them a part of the Brotherhood. He claims that the Brotherhood's rank and file troopers are too big a warning sign for the planetary defense forces, but I think he likes the flair that some of the mercenary groups give off. He's contracted with Mandalorians often, could we find a way to use that?

The question was directed at Ruby who looked stunned for a moment. Surely the notion that the Brotherhood uses Mandalorian mercenaries wasn't surprising to the woman, she herself has admitted that the Sith pay better than the Republic ever could.

After a few moments, Ruby found her voice and responded, "Did you know what clan any of them were from? Any symbols on their armor that might be an identifier?"

"The only one I ever met was a smaller group. There was four of them, and they managed to subjugate a small city on one of the Mid-Rim's moons. The leader had silver armor with some sort of bird painted on his chest, if that's helpful."

"I don't recognize it, but there are only so many Mandalorians kicking around. I'll have my buir ask around, anyone else have any ideas?"

"What if we just went somewhere Torchwick 'subjugated' recently? There's got to be at least something there." Weiss' idea had merit, but there was a large flaw in it that was immediately pointed out by Pyrrha.

"You want to just waltz around a Sith controlled world? We'd stick out more than a bantha in the senate!"

"Not necessarily, the people of these worlds support token garrisons, just large enough to keep the population under control and out of Republic hands. As long as the Jedi keep the mysticism down and the commander wears non-standard issue armor, we should be able to blend in fine. Especially with the Mandalorians, Ren, and Nora." Blake moved a hand into the galaxy map, pointing to a system about a day's travel from where we were. "Here, Generis. Torchwick took it earlier this year, but I never found out why. It's a small world, no major cities, nothing of obvious tactical importance."

"All that suggests the planetary garrison would be rather small." Pyrrha leaned back a little, obviously relieved that she wasn't going to be talked into running around on New Korriban.

"It's settled, then. I'll punch in the coordinates for Generis, everyone else take a break. Get to know the _Patch,_ unpack, and do your assigned duties. We'll come up with a plan in a few hours."

Like that, the group started moving away from the table, eager to get up and walk around. Everyone but Blake, that is. Blake just sat down in front of the galaxy map and studied the holographic surface of Generis.

Nobody bothered her, she looked like she wanted some time to herself.

* * *

Life on the _Patch_ sounded like it would be simple to adjust to; after all, it was remarkably similar to life aboard a Republic Navy ship. As long as you complete the duties assigned to you, you were free to spend your time doing whatever you like. As Ruby had yet to post today's duty roster, I decided my time would be best spent stripping my blaster and getting to know my new roommate for this posting.

My roommate, Jaune, was a far different Jedi than Weiss; embodying almost every ideal the Jedi were known for. From what I'd seen, he was patient, non-aggressive, and wise beyond his age. It was him, after all, who first saw through Blake, and him again that campaigned most actively behind the scenes to ensure our decision. In addition to all that, he was extremely easy-going most of the time. Comparing all of this to Weiss and you got two very different schools regarding the Jedi's place in the galaxy.

"Isn't that the same model they issue to the enlisted soldiers?" I'd also found out Jaune was also surprisingly well versed in a number of subjects, his side comments almost always being puzzlingly accurate.

I turned around to see him in the door of the armory, his eyes focused on the blaster rifle in my hands. Remembering to smile before responding, I set the brush and blaster barrel down to wave him over. "Hello, Jaune! I didn't know you knew anything about blaster rifles, Weiss always seemed to look down on them as clumsy and generally beneath her."

Jaune returned my smile and walked over to sit across from me, "Weiss and I had very different masters, I suppose. You never answered my question, though."

"Oh, well, I suppose you'd be right! I've had this rifle since I enlisted, I think that the regulations have changed since then, but he's a well-built piece of equipment – I've never really needed anything else."

"Fascinating, I suppose this is almost your lightsaber, isn't it? Do you mind?" He motioned to the parts I'd scattered around the table, all of them now well cleaned and dry. I had to admit to being a little curious about how much Jaune knew about how blaster rifles worked, so I motioned for him to do as he pleased with the components.

"Of course. The lightsaber comparison is pushing it a little, isn't it? I never had to build my blaster, just keep it properly maintained."

Jaune closed his eyes for a minute and took a deep breath. A moment later, the components to my rifle began floating in front of him, slowly fitting into each other perfectly. After the rifle was completely reassembled, it began to reverse the process. After a few minutes, the components were once again sprawled out on the table between us. A brief breath and Jaune reopened his eyes and continued our conversation as if he hadn't just made my rifle assemble and unassembled in the air in front of me.

"Maybe so, but you've made plenty of modifications of your own. No stock rifle fits together this well, your rifle feels much more…personal than any of its peers."

It took a few seconds to recover, but when I did understand the words he had said to me, I could feel a faint blush rise in my cheeks. I wasn't very good at taking praise of any kind, it always felt undeserved. "Thank you, but I stand by my previous comment. The modifications I've made are all simply a part of routine maintenance, any proper soldier could attest to that."

Jaune smiled and put his hands up in mock surrender, "I suppose you're right about that. Anyway, I'm glad I found you, Ruby finally posted the duty lists…err…well they're more like the result of Ruby, Blake, and Weiss finally hammering out the details of the mission. Here."

He handed me a piece of flimsi with the crew of the _Patch_ sorted into groups with different jobs: Yang and Nora would interact with the locals, Ruby and Ren would attempt to get friendly with the local Sith Garrison, Blake and Weiss were tasked with looking into the area surrounding the village, and Jaune and I were tasked with getting information out of the local law enforcement agency.

"I was afraid that they wouldn't be able to put something like this together in time, I'm glad to see that I was wrong. We're to play sheriff, then?"

"Not quite, I brought along the files available to us: it seems that the local law enforcement is more of a small planetary defense force; emphasis on small. They have an outpost in the village, yes, but it seems to be staffed with only the command structure of the organization, the rest of them stick around the various smaller settlements in the area."

"How long do we have before planetfall?"

"About eight hours, give or take thirty minutes for landing procedures. I assume you want to learn all you can in that time?"

I nodded as a response, I had only gone into enemy territory without a full briefing once before and I don't plan on making the same mistake ever again. "I suppose I'm most curious as to why the defensive force is a separate entity from the Brotherhood garrison on the planet."

He scrolled through his datapad before handing me the device to read, "Traditionally the Brotherhood of Darkness cares very little about petty crime. Sure, their definition of 'petty' is pretty different from ours, but as long as it doesn't impact army operations, most backwater worlds are allowed to keep almost every faucet of their governments intact – the Sith have no interest in bureaucracy, they only seek to rule."

"I'd heard as much from others, but it's good to have it confirmed by a Jedi padawan. You've almost certainly seen more of these places than I."

"Heh…well, you'd be wrong on both of those stances." His hand wrapped around his neck as he reached for his braid. A braid that…wasn't there.

Oops.

How could I have missed that? Of course he'd been promoted, Weiss was even treating him like an officer now! The only words that could leave my mouth were those of a frazzled NCO:

"I'm so sorry, Sir! I meant no disres—"

His hands flew up to wave me off, "It's fine, Pyrrha, I don't want anyone to treat me different just because I finally took full responsibility for my abilities."

"Ah, well..." I put on my best congratulatory smile, "Congratulations, Jaune, I'm glad to be able to work with a full Jedi Knight on this operation, it's a rare honor."

"Seriously, don't mention it. I doubt the others really give a vervikk's tail about my promotion, and despite Weiss acting happy for me, I'm sure she's a little bitter. Just act like I'm just another member of the crew, ok? Please?"

"Well, in that case, what did you mean by not seeing many of these sort of places? Surely you've been on a few of these planets before."

"Not really, Weiss and I aren't attached to some Jedi Lord – we're from the Temple. The Council has made a point to stay as far out of this as they can, we've only seen battle a few times. My master and I actively avoided it."

"Why would you do that? You're a phenomenal warrior, having you on the field could save dozens of lives!"

"Heh, I suppose…" He slouched a little, obviously uncomfortable. Maybe pressing him on this wasn't the best way to prepare for a mission.

"Alright, well, shall we get to it? I'd like to start by going over local flora and fauna, just in case we get stranded somehow."

"Is that likely?"

"No, but it's always best to be safe."

When he got down to it, Jaune was extremely good at retaining information, as the hours passed and the materials relating to Generis' different legal systems, cultural oddities, anything that would potentially help in our mission. When the ship landed, we'd be ready.

* * *

 **Sorry for the wait on this one, College is the world's largest and most expensive time sink. Just know that there will be updates to this story, and I will not abandon it.**

 **Thanks for reading, sorry for the erratic-ness,**

 **DtheTrain**


	15. Chapter Thirteen

**Chapter Thirteen**

* * *

A string of cheerful binary out of Zwei woke me with a start, my groggy mind only able to make out the final group of chirps as 'exiting hyperspace in thirty minutes.' As soon as the part of the statement regarding time finished bouncing around in my head and clicked, I bolted into action, flipping on the internal address system to warn my new crew about the fast approaching hyperspace exit.

"Attention all hands, Ruby here! We'll be exiting hyperspace in about thirty minutes, so I suggest you get your kit in shape! I also need Weiss to come down to the cockpit as soon as you're ready to go!" I hit the switch to turn off the internal address system before barking a few commands to the little astromech next to me; landing the _Patch_ on what general reports describe as a high-gravity wild world might get complicated quickly.

"Run a full system check. Include everything – I want to know if there's a loose bolt on the underside of the quad cannon."

"BEE-OOP WHEE BIP"

"I know the internal scanners can't pick up loose bolts like that, di'kutla beskar'ad! Just scan the ship!"

"WHIP DO-DEEP"

"Lek, lek, lek, complain all you want. I know full well you knew what I meant. I hear you cracking jokes with Yang when I'm not around!"

"BEooEEP"

"Just tell me when you're done, mir'osik."

"WHEE IP-OOT"

I heard the cockpit door hiss open before Zwei jabbed me in the side of my leg with its shock arm. Forgetting that the crew we'd assembled might not be used to the general abuse Yang, Zwei, and I tend to inflict on each other on a regular basis, I didn't hesitate to retaliate by slapping the dome of my unruly astromech and let out a string of obscenities in three different languages.

A polite cough behind me halfway through my third slap to the droid's head reminded me that I'd requested Weiss come to the bridge. Giving Zwei a final shove, I swiveled my chair around to see a very confused looking Weiss staring at me with a mix of surprise and concern.

"Is this a bad time, or…"

"No! This utreekov droid just gets hopped up on his own authority sometimes!" I had a feeling that I'd only created more questions than I'd answered with that comment, but Weiss' expression changed back to her normal dismissive grimace.

"That's…Interesting? Nevermind, you wanted to see me?"

"Yes, thank you. Zwei, forward the diagnostic report to the karyiai console when you're done"

"WHIR-BOOP"

"Make sure you don't include so many complaints in the report, di'kut." I stood up and turned to Weiss, motioning to the door, "I just wanted to finalize the plan before we hold the general briefing, if that's fine with you?"

"Haven't we already done that?" Weiss returned to a slightly confused expression before following me into the karyiai – the large chamber close to the bow that served as everything from a mess hall to a command center.

"We sorted the plan out, yeah, but I always like to go over everything one final time before we reiterate everything to the group."

"That sounds… highly intelligent, Ruby."

"Hey, don't sound so surprised! I've been doing this sort of thing since I could hold a knife!"

"Sorry, I didn't mean to—" I cut her off by laughing, activating the projector on the room's center console to display a rough map of the area we'd be investigating on Generis.

In response to my laughter, Weiss' face changed from apologetic to annoyed "What, pray tell, is so humorous?" I doubled down on my laughter, her reaction was so typical of this woman I'd only met a few days ago.

By the time I caught my breath and could put a sentence together, Weiss had changed her expression again: from annoyed to downright glacial. "You really have to loosen up, Weiss! This isn't some stuck up Jeti vessel, this is a Mando ship! A proper me'sen! Crack a smile once in a while! Loosen up!"

Weiss was indignant; her frown reached far beyond her eyes when she spat out a response, "I am plenty loose, thank you!"

"If that's loose, I don't ever want to see uptight." I made sure to smile softer than usual to reinforce that I was taking part of some friendly teasing. She got the message and went back to the default 'I'm always annoyed at everyone' expression she wore in the presence of others, crossing her arms and walking over to the table to take part in the final stages of planning our operation.

"I swear, you're as bad as your sister! I thought you were the serious one."

"Nobody needs to be serious all the time, vod. But you've got a point, we've got work to do." I zoomed in on a part of the forest that our map showed to be fairly clear a few kilometers from the settlement. "Until we get scans of the planet, I still suggest we land here, well outside of the settlement."

Weiss unfolded her arms and leaned forward to inspect the settlement before asking the question I knew was coming: "Why not just land in the landing pad and cut the walk? Won't landing outside the city look suspicious?"

"No, we should be fine if we pose as mercenaries as planned, it's almost a norm for small wild worlds like this – settlers don't want to feel like they're being invaded by chakaare like us and we don't want to give away too much about our numbers."

Weiss nodded, accepting my explanation without more comment. I had been afraid working for a Jeti would be more frustrating than this, but thus far Weiss had deferred to my experience more often than not.

"Other than the landing site, was there any additional concerns you wanted my input for?"

I nodded, "Only one more." A few keystrokes and the map zoomed out to show a larger area around the settlement; five different areas of roughly equal area split up into different colored chunks. "We need to discuss where our search priorities will go – there's a lot of possible area in the wilderness for whatever we're looking for to hide."

"Won't the scans of the planet show us where we should look?"

"It's possible, but I'd rather plan assuming they're well hidden, if they're even there." Weiss nodded and started circling the map, trying to get a better view from multiple angles.

"Where do you suggest we start?"

I pointed out the section colored pink, "They'd have a good defensive position here, being on top of a hill, but they'd be exposed." I moved my hand to the green swath, "Here they'd be covered by what should be dense forest, making them harder to see from orbit but imparting a severe disadvantage if it comes to conflict. They'd likely be in the same general position as any potential attackers."

Weiss listened quietly to my appraisal before pointing at the blue part of the map, "What about here?"

I looked closer at the terrain enclosed by the blue chunk of map: it was a lake surrounded by light foliage being fed by various streams.

"It wouldn't be my first choice – the lake means that most of the area is clear space, and you'd run into trouble with the various streams cutting through the terrain, but it does have the potential to exhaust potential aggravators while you stay fresh. I say it's a possibility, but so is everything." I shrugged and looked back to Weiss. Her eyes closed for a few moments before she responded.

"We'll start there, I feel like that's our best bet."

"It's as good as anywhere, sure. Right, that's all I had – I'm going to go change unless you've got anything else to add before we brief everyone else?" She shook her head and motioned for me to feel free to leave.

"No, I'm perfectly ready. I'll go change when you're done, I doubt it'll take long."

"Suit yourself, see you in a few."

As Weiss continued to study the map, I turned around and walked out of the karyiai's only other exit: the one that led to the rest of the ship. A few turns and I was in the armory, ready to outfit myself for the mission.

After sliding on the form-fitting black bodysuit, I started the process of attaching the plates of my armor, starting with the greaves and working my way up, saving my white gauntlet for last. A belt and a bandolier were slung on, outfitted with various weapons and tools. I clipped my helmet to the side of my belt before throwing on a bantha leather greatcoat to complete the ensemble and hide most of the weaponry I was carrying. After slipping on my armored boots I made my way back to the cockpit, testing the various armor systems as I walked.

Weiss had left the karyiai, likely to get changed herself. In place of the map was the diagnostic I'd asked Zwei to run. A quick scroll through showed all systems functioning within reasonable parameters, though I noticed the port ion engine could use a tune up.

By the time I'd made it to the cockpit, we were only a few minutes from jumping out of hyperspace. I strapped myself in and opened the intercom once again to give the warning: "Attention all hands, prepare for hyperspace exit! Make sure you strap yourself in this time, Yang, I doubt Zwei wants to re-wire that wall again."

I flipped a few switches to warm the ion engines up before we exited hyperspace and waited. Soon, the stars stopped being streaks of light and, with a violent lurch, the _Patch_ reentered realspace, her ion engines coming to life as I took the helm, the jovial nature of my copilot as absent as mine now that we had actually begun the operation.

"Zwei, where'd the jump put us?"

"OOH WHI-OP DEE"

"Good, start scans of the operational area immediately and give me the vectors for a high orbit while we figure out a landing area."

"DIP WOHP-BEOO"

"Vor'e, Zwei." A few moments later, the autopilot signaled that it was ready to enter orbit. A simple push of a button took control away from me, the helm now devoted to the shipboard computer's programmed course.

"Let me know when you've finished the scan, I'm going to go make sure everyone's ready."

* * *

I loved the pre-mission high that came with exiting hyperspace. I loved the anticipation that came with entering enemy space. Most of all, I loved the initial spike of adrenaline I got when I put on my kit.

I hadn't put on any of the yellow plating of my beskar'gam this time around – Nora and I were assigned the social part of this investigation. That meant dealing with a bunch of civilians, which meant being as approachable as possible without sacrificing protection. The only armor I was wearing for this operation was a catch vest under a leather jacket with deep pockets. Pockets that were filled with brass knuckles, a few smoke grenades, a few fragmentation grenades, and a holdout blaster. Before leaving my room, I slid a combat knife down the side of my boot and checked my appearance in a mirror – a little disheveled but overall presentable.

Who was I kidding? I looked _hot_!

A loud banging against my door accompanied my sister's voice, already in authoritarian commander mode. I swear, it's like a kriffing switch with that girl. "Yang, we're waiting on you, we've only got a few minutes before we touch down and we haven't even _started_ the briefing!"

I ran my fingers through my hair one last time before opening the door with a wide smile plastered over my face, "C'mon, vod, you'll be late for the briefing if you just keep standing there!" I moved past here and set a brisk pace for the karyiai, outpacing my still stunned little sister.

When I entered the command center, my new roommate pointed my presence out to the others, a high level of sarcasm present in her tone, "At last, Yang stops admiring herself and decides to come do her job."

I simply smiled and shrugged, leaning back in one of the empty chairs around the table before putting my feet up. "It's not every day the galaxy gets to see Yang Xiao Long ures beskar'gam! I just had to make sure it would get its fill!"

I took the time to look around the table – I really had been the last one to the briefing. I'd make sure next time was different; buir hadn't raised me to be late to anything.

Everyone at the table had changed into some form of combat gear; some more extreme than others. Nora was dressed like down like me, a simple light blaster strapped to her thigh. Ren, on the other hand, was wearing more combat-oriented gear than I'd seen him wear before: light durasteel plates covering areas much in the same way beskar'gam did under his olive green duster, twin bandoliers crossing his chest that no doubt held his twin blasters. Weiss and Jaune no longer looked like Jeti: they were dressed in plain looking civvies that passed for dressed down mercenaries. Pyrrha had even acid-washed her armor to look like a republic deserter. The only person at the table who hadn't altered their attire for this operation was Blake, whose kit was already well suited to her task.

Ruby walked in a few seconds after I'd taken a seat and cleared her throat, stopping Nora's idle chatter toward Ren mid-sentence. After the table was focused, she motioned for Weiss to stand up and give the final briefing before walking off into the cockpit to pilot us down to the surface.

The Jeti stood up and gestured at the holographic map that was floating in front of all of us before starting, "Everyone here has already gone over their personal roles in this operation, but to be safe we'll go over everything one more time while the _Patch_ starts its decent.

"The crew will be splitting up into four pairs, each with a different objective. Nora and Yang will head into the center of the settlement and try to figure out what the settlers know about the conquest of the world; Ruby and Ren will infiltrate the Brotherhood's garrison to look for deployment information; Jaune and Pyrrha will be checking out the local law enforcement's records; and Blake and I will start our search of the surrounding area in the blue area of the map.

"If nothing brings in results today, the teams will start a more in-depth search of the surrounding area tomorrow."

As Weiss finished describing everyone's part, the ship started rocking and we were all pushed into our seats. After a few minutes of being tossed around by course changes, a final jerk indicated that we'd touched down on the surface of Generis.

"Are there any questions?"

Weiss looked around the room for any comments before doing that strange little bow the Jeti do to each other and dismissing us.

"Very well. Keep in contact, and may the Force be with you."

In the initial scuffle as everyone moved to exit the ship, I managed to pry Nora away from Ren and deposit her in the chair next to mine, earning a confused glance and a confusing string of chatter.

"What are we doing? Aren't we going outside to investigate civilians? I was hoping we could walk with Ren's group until we have to split up to do our different jobs because it's like, a bunch of kilometers until we even get to the city and start doing our job…"

"Nora, relax. It's not even noon! Our job is to get information out of settlers. That means our job is to sit around a bar and drink while listening for a way into the right sort of conversations. You don't want to spend three hours in a bar before any of the settlers start their night, do you?"

"Right. Good! Cool." I waited a few moments before continuing the conversation, fully expecting the constant stream of take that I'd found every other conversation with Nora to be. Turning to face her so I could anticipate the places I'd be able to get a word in edgewise, I was met with a very different Nora than I'd gotten used to.

In place of her permanent, good natured grin and unending stream of joy was a worried wreck of a woman that was practically shaking in place. She looked like a girl who was about to see battle for the first time, not like a woman that I'd already seen stand unflinchingly against those unnatural creatures Blake had called Grimm and that had ran through a burning battlefield prior to that without hesitation.

"Nora? You alright, vod? You don't look too hot."

She looked at me and shook off whatever it was that was bothering her, forcing a smile back on her face. A smile that never quite reached her eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm peachy! Uhh – what are we supposed to be listening for in the cantina? Or…"

"Relax, vod, we're just going out for drinks! It'll be fun, we got the easy job."

"Easy, right. Easy! Drinks. Right. Right. Cool!"

"Nora, me'bana? Why are you forcing this right now? Just relax, we've got a few hours before we need to move, you'll be miserable if you spend the entire time tensed up."

"Me'bana…that's…what's happening, right?" She was desperately looking for an out, so I gave it to her.

"Yeah! Man, you've really caught on quick! What've you been doing when I'm away, studying?"

Nora's smile started to become more genuine as she responded with a little more of the bubbly joy I was used to from her, "No, I still have no idea what you're talking to Ruby about half the time! You throw basic and mando'a together so quickly I can hardly keep up!"

"I'm sure you'll get the hang of it, maybe before the end of your time on the _Patch_ you'll be just as fluent as us!"

"You think? OOH! It's like a secret language!" The conversation started to pick up again as she began talking at normal speeds for Nora, "Well, maybe not secret – there are loads of Mandalorians around the galaxy that would understand, but most people think it's just gibberish, right? Is there a word for gibberish? What is it? Probably super guttural and hard to pronounce like the others, right?

I seized the brief gap in her train of thought to respond, "Yeah, gibberish is jus…"

"So how much longer do you think it would take to finish teaching me? What about Ren?"

The moment Ren's name left her lips it was like someone had thrown a switch inside her mind. Her smile evaporated again and the shaking started back in. Instincts took over and I pulled her into a hug, cooing softly like I would Ruby when she was a girl.

"Udesii, Nor'ika udesii. What's bothering you? It's painted all over your face; you look like a girl who hasn't even stepped foot on a battlefield, let alone commanded it bend to your will."

"It's – It's stupid, really. Osik."

"I've probably heard dumber. Ruby used to be afraid of the mando buy'ce, especially when it was covering buire or me."

She chuckled at that a little and pulled out of my hug, sitting back in her chair and pulling her legs to her chest. She attempted a half smile before talking again after a minute of silence.

"Don't you worry about her when you're split up into two different groups?"

"All the time, sure, but it's never really stopped us from splitting up when we need to. We've both been fighting other people's wars since we were eight – old enough to follow buir onto the battlefield – there's a sort of trust engrained in us that we can survive almost anything alone."

"What about the rest of your family? They have to be crazy worried that you're out and about without them."

I shrugged, "Eh, our buir is a busy old man, he's probably off fighting somewhere else, maybe for the other side, even."

"That doesn't bother you?"

"Nah, Ruby and I take our jobs from the Republic on moral grounds, but even after what happened to Summer our buir has remained ever pragmatic. If he ends up working for the Brotherhood I'm sure there's a good reason for it."

She seemed to let that roll around in her head for a while, hugging her legs closer together as her brow knit in anxiety.

"You're worried about Ren, right?"

She nodded, pausing to find the right words, "We've never really faced anything like this alone before. I'm sure he's fine, Ren's always fine, but he's going straight to the bad guys, right? And I won't be there to pull him out of trouble like usual."

"You tend to do that a lot?"

She smiled a little, "It was how we met. He was cornered by, like, twenty thugs who thought he'd be an easy target, being just a kid and all. I ran in with a hammer and convinced them otherwise, it took a few broken bones and a lot of yelling but eventually they decided Ren wasn't worth it and limped off. We've been together ever since."

"That's…well, that's pretty kandosii'la…I don't believe most of it, but still…"

"Well, it wouldn't be a very good story if I didn't embellish a little."

"That's a good point! I haven't told you about the time Ruby and I fought our way out of a gigantic gundark nest, have I?"

The next few hours were spent distracting Nora with increasingly ridiculous tales of my various adventures as a mercenary with quite a lot of embellishment to spice up the gritty, boring reality of most of our operations. Nora did have a point there, after all. It's _way_ more entertaining to listen to a story about someone tracking a mark through a dense cityscape by narrowly avoiding detection mere meters away from them instead of the boring reality of me waiting at a tapcaf while Ruby was in a sniper's perch watching the guy through a scope.

Every thirty minutes the entire crew would check in, sometimes just a series of beeps that broadcasted an 'everything is fine' message to everyone, sometimes full reports about what's happened so far. Soon, our time came and we made our way to the settlement, taking our time and swapping increasingly more ridiculous (and mostly made up) war stories.

It took an hour longer than I like, but by evening Nora and I were standing before the settlement's seediest tapcafe.

Granted, it was also the settlement's nicest tapcafe… and the most mid-tier tapcafe.

I opened the doors for my partner, cracked my knuckles, and gave my most confident smile, "Well, Nora, let's get a drink!"

* * *

 **Coursework may be trying to kill me, but I'm not dead yet!**


End file.
